After finishing graduate school I was looking for a job and in the meantime freelanced. I was an internet strategy consultant. I was designing websites primarily for nonprofit organizations.

Well into a relationship with a client, I was called to come to a meeting with the chair of their board where an outside vendor was going to make a sales pitch for some new web technology.

The pitch: Their technology would read the minds of website visitors.

No, really, I’m not joking.

They said they could read the minds of people visiting the website and, based on realtime information, would deliver the exact content and experience the website visitor desired.

They would know when the visitor was bored and new information needed to appear on the page.

And, they would be able to tell what kind of information, too. They could tell when a sports fan would want to hear a sound file of the cheering of the crowd roar from their speakers.

Throughout this whole presentation, it was difficult not to burst out laughing.

With Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing fresh in my educated mind, I thought of the privacy concerns: “Does the customer opt-in to the company reading your mind and thoughts?”

In an innocent Columbo-esque way, I asked such a thing. The answer was that of course the customer would be okay with it because it brings them pleasure and satisfies them in their experience.

Would it be okay? Really?

“And if my thought-dreams could be seen, they’d probably put my head in a guillotine.
But it’s alright, Ma, it’s life, and life only.” -Bob Dylan.

I don’t think so.

The last people (maybe) who consumers will want to have reading their minds are companies trying to sell them something.

When the vendors had left, I expressed my outrageous skepticism. I sent the company’s ink to some people I went to graduate school with and we had a good laugh. That evening at home, I browsed the company’s website. The product demonstration was full of lovely stock photos of nature scenes, rainbows, and animals. Eventually music loaded.

I walked away from my computer and had forgotten to close the browser window. Upon my return the message on the screen had changed:

“Since you’ve enjoyed this page so much and have been studying it so carefully, here are some links we think you’ll like.”

I was just thinking about how great the sandwich I had eaten was.

OK, I’ll admit it.  I didn’t watch the Super Bowl this year.  Even, though I was pulling for the Pittsburgh Steelers, I didn’t have a horse in this race so it wasn’t must see TV.  I didn’t even watch it for the ads.

Instead, I attended Elemental Theatre’s production of Dec-A-Go-Go in Providence, RI and spent the evening talking shop with their Artistic Director (and old friend), Alexander Platt.

All that being said, I thought I would mark the occasion with my favorite Super Bowl advertisement of all time.

Apple’s legendary Macintosh launch ad, directed by Ridley Scott.

Recently New Repertory Theatre (where I worked from 2003 through 2006) posted the documentary video that I had worked on during June 2005.  The video was played before the 20th Anniversary Gala, which also was the theatre community’s first opportunity to see a performance in the Charles Mosesian Theater at the Arsenal Center for the Arts in Watertown.

After the video, the audience was treated to a spectacular concert version of New Rep’s award-winning production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. It was a fitting celebration for a company that has had a meteoric rise from the small church space in Newton Highlands to a resident company at performing arts center.

Creating this documentary for such an important event was a particularly exciting opportunity.  New Rep partnered with NewTV (Newton Community Access Television) and I had a great time working with then recent high school graduate, Josh Woolf, who was an expert in video production.  Josh’s expertise in knowing nearly everything about the equipment (all mine was a few years out of date) helped us tell New Rep’s compelling story. Josh’s technical experience and my background and knowledge of theatre, a desire to learn more about New Rep, and experience conducting interviews helped us capture some wonderful moments.  It was a great experience in storytelling.  Josh has since gone onto study at Emerson and has worked on a few films as a production assistant.

The interviews took us to New York City to talk to Founding Artistic Director, Larry Lane, and around the greater Boston area to interview other founding members, board members, and Rick Lombardo, the Producing Artistic Director who recently announced he would be leaving to assume the same role at San Jose Rep.

While at Antioch College, Bob Devine, the then-President and Professor of Communications, once said that all Antiochians inevitably work on or create a documentary.  As community members, we recognize there are important stories that must be told.  At that moment in time, I was a student of theatre and psychology, and I didn’t envisioned myself working on any types of documentaries.

I was wrong.

After working on the New Repertory Theatre 20th Anniversary Video, I understood what Bob meant.  When a staff member has the time and freedom to research and present a history of an organization, they are able to fully become part of a tradition.  They understand the context of their daily work in the bigger picture.  The history, as it did for New Rep, illustrated the broader contribution of many different people over an extended period of time that made the theatre what it is today.

When documenting a growing cultural organization like New Rep at a historic moment of moving to a new performing arts space, you begin to learn what it takes to be successful.  You learn about the diverse group of people, each with their own, opinions and personality quirks.  You also learn how each one of these people has contributed to the success and sustainability of the organization.  Above all, what you discover is that through the difference, they are all working together towards a singular, mission-based vision for the organization.

It is a commitment to success.

The stories of the hard work, sacrifice, and commitment that build cultural organizations and institutions into essential parts of life must be told.  They serve as a constant reminder of what is important in our communities and how, if we don’t support them, the can disappear.

“Insist that we support science and the arts, especially the arts. They have nothing to do with the actual defense of our country — they just make our country worth defending.” - Ken Burns

Over the past few years at meetings with marketing colleagues in the Boston theatre community, I have found there to be more and more buzz about Google Grants.

What is a Google Grant?  It is in-kind Google AdWords advertising for non-profit organizations.

Online advertising still fascinates many non-profit arts organizations.  For some, it is still a great unknown or deemed a risky investment.  The traditional methods of direct mail, telemarketing, print advertising, and e-communications (yes, it is now well established and “old”) are used.  Budgets are tight and a high return on investment is needed.  This reduces the amount of risk marketing staffs are willing to take.

Also, I would speculate that many non-profits prioritize internet marketing strategy lower than more traditional or comfortable strategies.  That being said, when an organization is given an opportunity to use up to $10,000 per month in Google AdWords advertising, it is difficult to pass up.  Especially when the advertising is considered, for all intents and purposes, free.

However, just because something is free, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t a valid opportunity.  Instead, like every other opportunity, it should be maximized for the fullest benefit in both the short and long term.  A Google Grant is a booster shot–a significant jump start—which, if implemented correctly, can provide a solid foundation for an internet marketing strategy, bolstering a non-profit organization’s web traffic and potential reach.

This is what Google has in mind, too.  An organization that consistently uses $9,000 of the $10,000 per month grant for three consecutive months may be eligible to have the grant increased to $40,000 per month in Google AdWords.

In order to maximize the potential long-term benefits of a Google Grant, a non-profit cannot only rely on the $10,000 per month AdWords spend. In addition it can invest in an overall internet marketing strategy which includes Search Engine Optimization.

Last year, Hubspot had an article on their blog “Stopping The Google AdWords Morphine Drip: How We Saved $183 Last Week”.  This article is reminds us all that other ways exist to drive traffic to an organization’s website.  At his talk, “SEO 101: Search Engine Optimization Basics” from the Inbound Marketing Summit, Dharmesh Shah, followed this comparison by reminding everybody that the Google AdWords system is a bidding system–meaning that as time passes the cost of having a specific ad appear as sponsored result will go up.

Google Grants has imposed some discipline in the bidding process for executing a grant with a maximum bid of $1.00 per click.  You can read a full explanation of all the restrictions here. Here are the key elements:

1. Maximum bid of $1.00 per click.
2. Relevant, mission-based keywords and advertisements.
3. Ongoing, active management of the organization’s advertising campaign.

Google acknowledges that advertising on some words may not be possible.  Instead, the organization will have to find other relevant words on which to advertise.  While this may be a disappointment to the organization, it may wish to contemplate when the cost of other essential and important keywords may also become out of reach or above the $1.00 bid.  This is one of the key reasons why the Google-imposed $1.00 maximum bid provides an impetous for the organization to find other ways to be found online.  What the Google Grant provides is a window of opportunity for the organization to be found in a major search engine while it, at the same time, works on optimizing its website to be found through organic search.

In order to strategically implement a Google Grant, I would make the following five suggestions:

1. Develop a keyword list through brainstorming how people would find your product through organic search.  When developing this list prioritize relevance to the organization’s mission over the traffic from the specific word.
2. Strategically implement the Google Grant on a large number of relevant keywords maximizing the daily spend. Test your advertising text, consistently tweaking it for the highest click-through rate.
3. Install a free analytics program like Google Analytics which will help you to start gathering data on how people find you on their website and what they do when they land there.
4. From the beginning of your grant’s implementation, plan for the time when you will no longer, within the confines of the grant, be able to bid on specific keywords.  Do this through allocating part of your budget on internet marketing and search engine optimization.
5. If you don’t have one on staff already, hire an internet marketing strategist to review and optimize your online presence, and your reach in Google.

The November 2008 edition of Fast Company has a great article (“Abusing Social Media”) about how companies are experimenting with the latest technology tools and, instead of reaping the rewards, are embarrassing themselves online.

“Thanks for nothing, Web 2.0. With each sexy bit of social media that catches fire with users, lame companies get another fresh opportunity to pretend they know how to connect with customers without understanding what they’re doing. No business is abandoning traditional advertising in favor of these gimmicky, halfhearted efforts. They’re just abandoning any self-respect they once possessed. Whee!” “Abusing Social Media”, Fast Company, November 2008.

What’s unfortunate about these major failures and their use of social media is that other organizations are hearing their stories and are staying away or making the same mistakes.  Companies aren’t investing the time to learn how to do it right.

Take Twitter for example.  I am quite fond of this extremely popular microsharing service.  My recent tweets are posted on the sidebar of my blog.  Through using TwitterFeed, I’m able to link new posts on my blog to Twitter.  Facebook has an application where my tweets are posted as status updates.

All of this makes me more efficient in my distribution.  However, it doesn’t automatically make me a better communicator.  Improving those skills takes time.  I need to listen to what is being said to me and thoughtfully respond.  And, I do mean, thoughtfully.  With the constraint of 140 characters the requirement to be concise, brief, and effective is definitely a good thing.  I’m often teased for being long-winded.  I respond to those jabs with: “I just like being thorough in my communications and conversations!”

The Fast Company article brings up companies that are tweeting their press releases rather than using it to build relationships and community.  Note to companies: This isn’t building a relationship, it’s broadcasting.

The embarrassing usages of social media aren’t about how the technology isn’t good or an effective use of time (remember time equals money). Instead it is about forgetting how to communicate.

These companies as well as many non-profit organizations still believe that the internet is just a broadcast medium–if they put their information out there, of course, everybody is going to read or listen to it.  You can’t just “blast” it out there and hope for the best.  This isn’t a Field of Dreams “If you build it, they will come” medium.

What these companies have forgotten is that they have to do some listening to their current customers and some research to discover where they hang out online.  They have to spend time to cultivating the relationships.  It isn’t enough to just have your information or event posted online, you have to make sure your constituencies can find you.  To solve that, maybe you should do some inbound marketing.

Over the weekend I started reading Groundswell.  There was an interesting thought about ratings sites that I’ll paraphrase here:  If company starts to receive negative reviews about the product, it isn’t because people are out to get the company.  It may actually be that there are problems in the product.

The same holds true for internet marketing.  If you have an event on a social media site that only a few people have RSVPed for or you don’t have that many followers on Twitter, or your patrons are ignoring you online, it may not be because they aren’t interested or that they don’t like you.

Instead, it may be that there are problems with your strategy: You’re broadcasting instead of communicating and building relationships.

Last weekend I returned home from a week-and-a-half long driving vacation to St. Louis and Lake Michigan.

Accompanying us on our trip was Barack Obama in the form of an audio book.  Before I left, I downloaded Dreams of My Father from eMusic.  Listening to Obama’s story as we crossed the country allowed us to get to know him better.  While I’m normally not a fan of audio books (I prefer reading the real thing), I downloaded it on a whim the night before we left and was glad that I did.

The last time I had listened to an audiobook while driving it was on a cassette tape.  My father and I were driving from California to New Hampshire 12 years ago.  We alternated a Joseph Conrad novel Lord Jim with music and discussions.

This time, discussions with my parents were equally as interesting and important.  We were in St. Louis for a party ending what we joked was the “2008 Wedding Tour” and also visited some old family friends at a house on the shore of Lake Michigan.

Seeing old family friends and watching the continuation of the beginning of a new marriage while listening to the multicultural life story of Barack Obama made for some contemplation of hope and change.

From a marketing and storytelling perspective, one of the more interesting experiences was the Anheuser-Busch Brewery Tour in St. Louis.

I’ll gladly admit that I’m a beer snob.  I’d never drink Budweiser by choice.  In fact, there are times that I have opted for water or soda instead.  That being said, I had been told the tour was something that I shouldn’t miss.

They were correct.  The Brewery Tour was a marvelous example of the marketing of an American success story–a German immigrant creating a product and making it extraordinarily popular.  The brewery tour was as much about how they make beer as it was about how they have presented it to the public.  From the very beginning of the product, no detail was overlooked.  ”Budweiser” was chosen because it sounded ethnic enough but still was easily pronounceable.

Early in the tour, you meet the legendary Clydesdales.  You go into the historic stable and see their name placards.  During the tour, the language used by the guides was specific with every adjective carefully chosen to build up the anticipation of the beer you were going to taste at the end.

You were told about how rice creates a special flavor for the beer.

You were told about the aging process and what it meant to be cold filtered.

You were told about how keeping the beer fresh for delivery was of the utmost importance.

When you arrived at the end of the tour, you were eager to taste the beer.

When you sipped it, you found you appreciated it just a little bit more because you understood it better.  The cold, fresh beer pours out of the tap into the glass.

When you take a sip, someone says, “I think I taste the rice,” and “Yes, that’s the beechwood aging.”  You nod knowingly.

Now, I’m not saying that Budweiser will now become my beer of choice.  I can tell you about how they have created an experience that makes you feel that the product is special.

If I never drink Budweiser again (I am sure I will, sometime) at least I will have more respect for it.

For those curious, there was no mention of the InBev merger with Anheuser-Busch throughout the entire tour.  The only acknowledgment was that Stella Artois and another Belgian beer were available for tasting.  Locals who had recently taken the tour a few days before the announcement of the merger said the Belgian beers had not been available.

For quite some time now, I have had people suggest to me that I should start a blog. 

Now, it’s time.

For me, the most interesting blogs have not been diaries of day-to-day life but instead what is going on in the world through the eyes of the writer.  Who am I?  Read more here.

Since I was 18, I have worked in professional theatre in various capacities.  Throughout college I was an intern and after graduating and earning my Master’s in Internet Strategy Management, I wanted to find a different way to contribute.  My goal has always been to understand how to use the internet to market in a broad way and then to creatively apply the tactics and strategies to non-profits and arts organizations.

For the arts in particularly, the basic strategies (direct mail and print advertising in particular) have become less and less effective.  As an industry, we need to start looking for creative ways to engage audiences.

This may involve challenging assumptions.

It also may mean that the previous rules no longer apply.