As the article explains, “…quick response codes, or simply QRs, (are) the barcodes for the digital age — but ones that convey far more information, and which can be scanned by consumers with smartphones and tablet computers to open a Web page, play a video or even place a call.”

QR codes have been in nearly every magazine ad produced by CJRW for the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism for the last two years. First brought to the table in 2009 by the Department’s Communications Manager Dena Woerner and Group Travel Manager Renee Robison, the codes were initially used to quickly link to interior pages on Arkansas.com for more information. The Spring/Summer 2011 campaign was the first to link to video—giving us a way to place our 15-second TV ads in magazines and newspapers.

The LA Times story reports QR code scans nationwide are quickly growing—from 80,000 a month in 2009 to two million a month in 2011. For the first four months of 2011, nearly 12,000 of those QR scans took magazine readers to a mobile-friendly page featuring the campaign’s corresponding TV spot on YouTube and direct links to the most desired visitor resources, such as the Free Vacation Planning Kit and Hot Deals and Packages.

Joanne Hinson, Manager of Research and Information Services for the Department, notes that while it is a “…new technology, initial response is encouraging. Consumers are still at the beginning of the learning curve, and many don’t know how to use the technology even if they do have a smart phone.” The Nielsen Co. predicts that half of all Americans will soon have smart phones. Forrester Research reports that of current smartphone users, 25% of Android phone owners and 7% of iPhone owners scanned a QR code in the second quarter of 2010.

Another benefit to Arkansas tourism is the data gathered using the QR codes about how readers respond to our ads. While there are no benchmarks to use as a guide and the number of scans is heavily influenced by circulation and demographic profiles of the publications, we can get nearly immediate feedback on which ads and magazines spur the most engagement. “Southern Living” with a huge readership base generates lots of scans, as does “Bicycling” with younger, more technologically adept readers, and “Garden and Gun” with a more affluent market more likely to own smartphones.

While these numbers are becoming impressive, there is still a long way to go. The Department and CJRW have asked focus group participants what they think of the QR codes in research over the last two years. In 2010, only one participant was familiar with them, while 2-3 in each group were in 2011. All of the participants thought the idea was intriguing, and none of them thought that the codes detracted from the ads.

The ability to place videos and interactive links into paper and ink ads opens up whole new worlds of possibilities, taking us from the age of Gutenberg to the age of Zuckerberg.

While CJRW is proud of our long and illustrious history, we don’t rest on our laurels—we are constantly on the lookout for the next great way to persuade consumers and produce better results for our partners. We were the first Arkansas agency to produce a color TV commercial, and now via QR codes, we are the first to place a TV commercial in the pages of magazines. In the rapidly growing realm of social media, Arkansas tourism has been recognized as the first state to use Geosocial marketing in the book “Social Location Marketing: Outshining Your Competitors on Foursquare, Gowalla, Yelp & Other Location Sharing Sites,” by pioneering social media influencer Simon Salt.

What will be next? One thing’s for certain, Arkansas and CJRW will be leading the way.

When “Queen Z” heard about the Hot Springs billboard she wrote a post:

“Last week when my jockey, MIKE, was going to ride in Arkansas at Oaklawn Park, he called Dottie to mention the huge BILLBOARD he saw with US on it.  John contacted his friends at that race track and was able to get a photo of it for ALL OF US to see!  Mike’s right … it does LOOK IMPRESSIVE!  WIN CITY!  I like that thought!”

The post received nearly 200 comments from her fervent followers in the first 48 hours.

Today marks the one year anniversary of Zenyatta’s second Apple Blossom win, and tomorrow will be the 75th running of The Arkansas Derby with another record crowd expected to come out to conclude The Racing Festival of the South.

In August of 2010, CJRW staffers Ross Cranford and Nicole Boddington Hunnicutt started a blog promoting upcoming shows by favorite bands, whimsically registering thehipsteralert.com when they found the name available.

Last week, we were pleased to see a number of visitors coming in from a link on the Arkansas Times site, and discovered they’d named The Hipster Alert one of Arkansas’s top three Entertainment blogs, along with their own Rock Candy, and Phillip Martin’s Blood Dirt and Angels.

CJRW is proud to see our associates taking the initiative to explore new media. Heck, we’ve even used it to promote clients like Oaklawn when the time is right. Follow the Hipster Alert on Facebook so you can get all the latest news and updates, too.

We’re proud of our association with the Peabody Hotel Group. CJRW has worked with The Peabody Little Rock since it opened in 2002 after a $43 million renovation in downtown Little Rock.

The Peabody Little Rock was recently awarded Arkansas’s first and only Four Star rating by the Forbes Travel Guide for the second consecutive year. The leadership of Mr. Belz and the Peabody Hotel Group provides a powerful draw for meetings and conventions in The Natural State’s capital city. CJRW gladly walks beside the famous Peabody Ducks as this legendary brand continues to make waves in the hospitality industry.

Picture of our two favorite balloons by Oaklawn's Bobby Geiger

The Hot Springs Advertising & Promotion Commission recently approved the $1.3 million 2011 Marketing Plan presented by CJRW by a unanimous vote. This will mark the 10^th year that we have represented this legendary resort town, one of the premier tourism destinations in the South and hometown of President Bill Clinton.

Over the past decade, working with Steve Arrison and the Hot Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau team, we’ve helped increase tourism tax revenue by almost 30%. Just this summer, Hot Springs recorded its best June ever, setting a new monthly milestone by breaking the half-million-dollar mark.

In addition to fully integrated multi-media campaigns, we’ve coordinated the research that led to the brand positioning of “America’s First Resort,” printed the wildly successful Bill Clinton trading cards, designed and published the Summit Arena Image book, developed marketing co-ops with Oaklawn, Garvan Gardens, Magic Springs, and more.

The “Spa City/Excitement City” campaign introduced in 2010 has generated such good results, we are continuing its run for another year with only a few tweaks. Below is the thirty-second spot from the campaign that ran in 2010.

Hot Springs | “Excitement City” :30 from Jones Film Video on Vimeo.

2010 also saw the sudden emergence of “A Race for the Ages” when Oaklawn President Charles J. Cella offered $5 million to get the undefeated Zenyatta and reigning Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra to meet in the Apple Blossom Invitational. CJRW’s Interactive team developed a microsite promoting the race on an extremely tight deadline. Unfortunately, Rachel Alexandra backed out, but the Apple Blossom website attracted hundreds of thousands of hits from all over the world bringing invaluable attention to Oaklawn and the Spa City. In 2011, CJRW will produce another microsite promoting Hot Springs’ unique, “First Ever Eighth Annual World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade.”

This year also saw the introduction of Hot Springs’ new hot air balloon. The city asked fans on Facebook to suggest a name, and I’m proud to say that my crowd-sourced suggestion of “Spa Force One” was selected as the winning entry (just another added value for our client).

We at CJRW pride ourselves on the length of our client relationships, and we hope 10 years is just the beginning. We’ve worked with Oaklawn and the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism for more than four decades, a record that perfectly illustrates our motto of “Relationships backed by performance.” We have retained this business all of these years because our work is creating the kind of results clients need to grow and thrive in a fast-paced and ever changing world.

The introduction of caller ID gave reporters and editors the ability to identify their suitors. Calls from unknown public relations people often brought groans from the writers around the newsrooms in which I worked. Even before answering, writers would start looking around the newsroom for an unsuspecting colleague to whom they’d forward the call.

The gem in a journalist’s day is the rare nugget that warrants a story, and it is the responsibility of the publicist to expose this sense of newsworthiness. Many public relations professionals believe this is the most difficult — and most important — part of their job.

Says Marc Cowlin, public relations manager at cafepress.com: “When working on a story you plan on pitching to the media it is imperative to think about the story from the point of view of a reporter, and their reading/viewing/listening audience.”
Cowlin lists the following as contributing factors to the newsworthiness of a story: proximity, impact, timeliness, prominence, conflict or controversy, uniqueness and human interest. One or more of the aforementioned elements can reel in the most skeptical of writers.

In haste to get the word out about our clients’ purpose and products, it’s sometimes easy to lose sight of the journalists’ desire to deliver interesting content. It helps to think back to my days in the newsroom and my conversations with public relations professionals. Thinking like a journalist when pitching a story really is in the best interest of those we represent.

Sure it’s great to let people know you support the home team. All other aspects of two products being equal, a fan will choose the one that supports the team he or she loves. But don’t stop there. You’re supporting the sport itself, not just the team. Fans know and appreciate that.

For example, Budweiser didn’t become the “King of Beers” by just catering to St. Louis Cardinals fans. In fact, St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch has been supporting the Redbirds’ archrival (no pun intended) for quite some time. Cardinals fans know that Cubs fans drink beer (they should, they haven’t won a World Series in over a century), AB can be forgiven for trying to get them drinking something other than Old Style.

Second of all, think bigger. Team up with other like-minded brands and do something out of the ordinary. Here’s another great example of a brand partnership that gets the most out of a sports partnership.

“The deal making Kraft’s brands the NCAA’s official/exclusive cookies/crackers/nuts spans all 88 of the men’s and women’s collegiate championships, including basketball, football, baseball, hockey and lacrosse.”

The timing of this team-up couldn’t be better: just in time for March Madness, or “Munch Madness” as they have tagged it. When sports fans want to snack on the couch during the highly rated NCAA Basketball Tournament — and they will — these snacks will be top of mind during stock-up trips to the grocery store. The brands will also be top of mind throughout the year during the rest of the sports seasons.

Now that’s a better alternative to the usual “Official {your product} Sponsor of the {team name here}” approach.

Here’s another example of teaming up and thinking big for a sports sponsorship. If you watch as many NFL games as I do, you already know that all three major American breweries (AB, Coors, and Miller) are vying for your attention.

It’s a competitive field, and Colorado-based Coors could have chose to just support the Denver Broncos, which they do, but why stop there? They drove the whole sponsorship home by teaming up with ABC/ESPN’s Monday Night Football and taking creative liberties with the well-known MNF theme. Coors, ABC/ESPN, and the NFL, that’s a powerful combo for sports fans. Try getting this one out of your head.

In my previous blog, I promised to provide some online tools that can assist community leaders and educators capture an accurate picture of the present circumstances. Here are a few of those tools that I hope you’ll find helpful.

In Arkansas, Governor Mike Beebe’s Arkansas Works initiative encourages all communities to conduct a community assessment and commit to a process of strategic planning. You can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you presently are. Here’s the tool being used in many Arkansas communities.

Arkansas Works Community Assessment

Designed by the National League of Cities, this assessment tool helped city officials and other community leaders gain a better understanding of how young children (ages 0-5) and their families are faring and where assistance is needed.

NLC Community Assessment Tool

Developed by the Vermont Department of Health, this guide is particularly helpful as it provides process information to implement audits, focus groups and opinion surveys.

Community Assessment Toolkit - Nutrition and Physical Activity

cdtoolbox.net is a joint collaboration between Penn State University and Cornell University’s Community and Rural Development Institute. An extremely thorough economic development toolbox, it is intended to connect people with resources and information necessary to strengthen the capacity of their communities.

Rather than utilizing community assessors from inside the community, this approach – First Impressions – developed by the University of Wisconsin Extension Service, helps communities learn about their existing strengths and weaknesses as seen through the eyes of the first time visitor. This strategy incorporates the “secret shopper” concept, capturing a visitor’s perspective of a community based on a short visit.

First Impressions: A Tool For Community Assessment & Improvement

This is the bonus package from the University of Kansas – my personal favorite for those who want to diligently pursue a local community assessment. This is one of the most useful packages I’ve ever seen, complete with sample surveys, data collection templates, information on how to conduct focus group interviews, etc.

MACA Community Needs Assessment Tool Kit

Get creative and think strategically! These tools are only samples so modify them to meet the specific needs of your community. Below is a list of government resources that can provide you with the most current community data.

• Economic data: Bureau of the Census (301-457-4608), Bureau of Labor Statistics (202-606-7828), U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (202-708-1422), and annual reports prepared by cities, counties, and states.
• 
Public health data and vital statistics: State and local departments of health and human services.
• 
Education data: U.S. Department of Education (1-800-USA-LEARN), the National Center for Education Statistics (202-219-1828), and state and local education agencies.
• Child welfare and juvenile justice data: U.S. Department of Justice (202-307-0765), local police and human service departments, and state juvenile and criminal justice agencies.
• Information on children and youth: Kids Count data books published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation (410-547-6600), the Children’s Defense Fund (202-628-8787), the National Center for Children in Poverty (212-927-8793), and county and local agencies.

Location Marketing has been gaining momentum for the last few years through location-based services like Yelp, Foursquare and Gowalla, and just as Social Engagement burst into the boardroom in 2008, Location Marketing is set for the same explosion in 2011. With Facebook’s recent introduction of Deals, Location Marketing has begun to receive mainstream attention. In case you missed the announcement, you’ll want to watch this short video to get an idea of just how big this could be.

Because Facebook Deals could be big for some of our clients, @cjrwInteractive decided to create a test Deal to get a solid understanding of the full process. The test Deal was simple enough: check into the CJRW Interactive office and receive a free pumpkin spice donut. Here is a quick walk-through of our experience:

Creating a Deal

The first step in creating a Deal is to claim a Place on Facebook. Once a place has been claimed, the rest of the Deal creation process is terribly simple. You will need to plan ahead for the following:

• Deal type: Individual, Friend, Loyalty or Charity. The Deal types allow for different triggers to deliver the deal. For instance, a Friend Deal can only be unlocked when a group of customers check in together.
• Deal definition: A brief statement of the Deal that is being offered, along with the action the customer must perform to claim the deal.
• Details and restrictions: Number of Deals available along with the time span that the Deal is active. The minimum time frame for a Deal is three hours.

(click images to expand)

Once the details have been entered and the Deal has been created, it is then sent to Facebook for approval. In our experience, the approval process took 20 hours. It is important to know that the Deal details are not locked once the Deal has been approved by Facebook. We found that the time frame could be adjusted up until the time that the Deal expired.

Customer Experience

In our test we found the most consistent customer experience occurred when using touch.facebook.com. iPhone users could not access Deals without updating their Facebook application to the most current version. Android users could not access the Deal via any version of the Facebook application. At the time of the test, Blackberry did not have an application available that would allow customers to claim the Deal.

Finding nearby Deals is relatively user friendly as long as the user is in immediate proximity of the Facebook Place offering the Deal. As pictured above, Facebook Places with active Deals are marked with a yellow box  in the same way that Foursquare lets users know of nearby specials. Claiming a Deal is a simple touch process that is made available once a user performs the required trigger, in our test the trigger was an individual check-in.

Instructions for Deal redemption are delivered inside the application and via an e-mail sent to the e-mail account the customer has registered with Facebook. As with any reward redemption that takes place by presenting a screen, room for fraud exists. In case of suspicious activity, a Facebook page administrator can view the Place check-in history to verify that a check-in is true.

Promotion for the Brand/Business

The ability to attract new customers with incentives and reward loyal customers for their patronage are the obvious benefits of Facebook Deals. Perhaps the most significant features of Facebook Deals are the automatic publicity and tacit referrals a business receives by way of updates to user streams. On average, Facebook users have 130 friends, meaning each check-in could serve as 130 word-of-mouth endorsements.

Overall First Impression of Facebook Deals

The customer experience was frustrating, and has a long way to go. With the exception of iPhone users with the most current version of the Facebook app, we had to assist every user in order for them to claim our Deal. Any business planning on running a Facebook Deal needs to have a very well-prepared customer service team to help users as they attempt to claim the Deal.

The strength of Facebook Deals is the simplicity of Deal creation. The process is streamlined and built with the most basic user in mind. Just as Facebook has made it easy to target and buy advertising placement on Facebook, businesses can easily create their own Deals without outside assistance.

With more than 200 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices, it is easy see the great value proposition Deals will hold once the mobile device issues are addressed. As Facebook works out the bugs on their end, businesses would be wise to do the same by experimenting with Facebook Deals now so they will be prepared to excel when the service matures.

Now, according to a recent AP news story, the rest of the advertising industry has finally caught on. “For advertisers, shorter commercials are a way to save money, and research shows they hold on to more eyeballs than the longer format,” the article states.

Beginning in 2009, on behalf of our clients, CJRW would first run a 30-second spot, and then follow it up with several fifteen-second spots with a condensed message to remind viewers of what they saw earlier.

“Shorter ads can be just as effective as longer ads.  Viewers can form new associations … in a few seconds and then recall that information in just one second,” the article quotes Deborah Mitchell, executive director of the Center for Brand and Product Management at the University of Wisconsin.

CJRW believes these little visual vacations have been instrumental in attracting new visitors to The Natural State and the Spa City, both of which weathered the recession with only a slight dip, and are now seeing growth as the recovery strengthens.