With that in mind, setting up a positive experience can be summed up in three steps:  Expectation, Communication, and Implementation.

Expectation:

Setting up expectation is possibly the most important of the three.  What will you be providing, and more importantly, what WON’T you be providing?  What’s an expected timeline for implementation of each individual step?  The idea here is to go through your entire process, ensuring the client doesn’t have any expectations that are unrealistic.  In addition to the explanation of your process, make sure to follow up with the client to see if they have needs that your services may not be able to meet, advise them, and suggest solutions.  This will ensure that there won’t be any unmet objectives at the end of the project.

Communication
As many of you know, things don’t always go as planned.  Timelines are skewed, dogs eat homework, employees get sick… whatever the excuse, we don’t ALWAYS meet our objectives.  This can cause a great deal of anxiety for both parties.  The most important lesson that can be learned from anything you read here is this, get ahead of your stumbles. The more lead time you can give a client that things may not go as planned, or that you may miss a deadline, the more coordinated your business will seem.  Whenever possible, determine new deadlines or other objectives within the process that can be completed.  (It’s times like these when a flow chart of the project comes in handy).  If ever the question pops up “should we tell the client”…. the answer is almost always “yes”.  Over-communicate if necessary, but make sure everyone stays on the same page, and on the same team.

Implementation
This simply comes down to implementing the game plan.  Do what you said you’d do!  If you’ve effectively set up expectations, and communicated with the client throughout the process, implementation can be the easiest of the challenges.  It probably goes without saying, but always do your best work, if the project can be improved by a little more TLC, give it.  Never walk away from a project with the mentality that “it could have been a better solution IF”.  Communicate the solutions with the client, and if they fit the objectives, make the project all it can be.

We’ve made it our goal at Strategic Blend to overachieve every opportunity we get.  As we continue to grow our business, we will always strive to meet expectations, effectively communicate the common goals, and implement them in a timely fashion to reach the greatest outcome possible.

We’re reaching a critical point where the future of the internet is now in question and we may end up with something very different than what we have now.  Imagine a United States where Comcast or AT&T could block any websites they deem inappropriate or “bandwidth heavy” or even give faster access to content they own and control.  Imagine sitting down to download some music from iTunes or watch TV on Hulu only to find that your ISP requires a higher, unconventional fee to access that kind of content.

Fairness and open standards are what allowed the internet to become the economic powerhouse it is today.  In order for future innovation and entrepreneurship to occur, we must support net neutrality.   Please contact your local congressperson or senator and ask them to preserve the open internet.

1.  Virtual Trading Cards

Some of you may have been around during the golden age of sports trading cards, which occurred in the early-mid 90s.  While the fervor has diminished since then, the concept has not.  Why not give it an ipod-era makeover and create interactive, virtual trading cards?

The new mobile devices with high quality screens are the perfect platform for a resurgence in sports cards.  Each card could be a digital representation of the classic but with interactive features embedded: video clips, interviews, even hidden easter eggs to increase a card’s particular value.  The static pictures could also be replaced by a live action shot (imagine one of Michael Jordon’s rookie card updated with the full action of him doing a classic dunk).

Having been an avid collector back in the day, I would personally love to see this happen.  As of yet, Fleer or Upper Deck haven’t made any big announcements.

2.  Mafia Wars – Sports Edition

If you haven’t heard of Mafia Wars, then you’re not familiar with one of 2009’s most popular online trends.  Quit reading this post and go get up to speed.

The game is one of the simplest and most effective uses of micropayments to ever come along, and is a model the sports world should completely embrace.  Trading real money for “experience points” or some virtual status symbol has become commonplace among teenagers and young adults, and the highly narcissistic nature of social networks only adds fuel to the fire.

Sure we’ve had Fantasy Football for years, but what if we combined it with a highly addicting game format that anyone could play on facebook or a mobile device.  We have yet to see any major sports entity try it, and the opportunity is ripe for the picking.

3.  Integration into gaming platforms

The video game platform has long been a lucrative part of the sports equation.  Since the 1980s, teams, players and leagues have been licensing their brands to various games.  While you need to play with the big boys to get in on a major release, lesser known teams and athletes can develop any number of smaller level game, specifically for devices like the iPod Touch.

Once you’ve got your game, its all about add-ons.  Sites like the X-Box Marketplace have evolved into the iTunes of digital gaming goods – players are able to purchase games, videos and apparel for avatars.  New games should continue developing better virtual goods to purchase:  old-school uniforms, classic players, previous arenas and stadiums, old video interviews…there really is no limit.

The real profit is in creating a branded destination where all of this can be browsed and bought, and where user demographics are tracked every step of the way.

4.  High-res photos

And just for good measure, here’s a super easy idea that can go a long way.

Fans love a good photo of their favorite things, but you’d be surprised how many players or teams DON’T actually sell quality digital photos online.  As a Green Bay Packers fan, I would even pay to have a few good shots of Lambeau Field in different settings.

It has never been easier to sell digital content on your website or even off of 3rd party sites like flickr.  This should be top of the list for any athlete on any level.

Within the past year we’ve worked with over 40 brands, our marketing, design, and execution of each project was a unique story and catered to the specific needs brought forth in discussions with our clients.

We’ve also been able to make strong relationships within the e-commerce community.  We’re a certified as a TopSpin Marketing company, have relationships with Nimbit, worked on specific projects with Reverb Nation, and Bandbox. In addition to digital commerce, we’ve also made alliances with brick and mortar fulfillment companies including Richards & Southern and MerchSquad.  This flexibility within our business philiosophy has allowed our clients to maintain longstanding vendor relationships, or choose from a numerous entities.

We’ve also made strong bonds with established recording and promotion companies. One of our first clients, Quarterback Records has been a strong source of creative brainstorming.   They’ve been willing to try so many promotions and really be a champion for our services, and we couldn’t be more proud to have them as a client.  A recent partnership with Thirty Tigers has also shown a great deal of synergies, and moving forward we’ll be championing the digital marketing efforts of their projects.

As we embark on our second year of business, we’re ready for new challenges, new branding / marketing experiences, and even more partnerships.  If you’re looking to take your brand to the cutting edge and utilize all that technology has to offer, we’re ready to help you achieve success with your brand.  Get in touch with us.

Here’s to good things to come!

Check it out and let us know what you think.

launch project

I think the main point Malcolm’s trying to make can largely be summed up by this quote:

…This is the kind of error that technological utopians make. They assume that their particular scientific revolution will wipe away all traces of its predecessors—that if you change the fuel you change the whole system.

While there are those who will tout or defend Chris Anderson at every turn (Seth Godin predicatbly falls into that trap), I believe his thinking ultimately falls short.  Chris makes many good points, but I’ve found he tends to muddy the debate with his overly-optimistic tone and “future is better” platitudes. He never once admits that a lot of this discussion is being driven (via self-fulfilling prophecy) by device makers or technology companies who stand the most to gain. They can wow the industry with shiny stuff and great buzz words and philosophy, but that doesn’t make what they say true.

Oddly enough, Gladwell does the SAME thing (only a different discipline) in his books. None of these guys will ever admit hypocrisy though.

What are your thoughts?

Read more here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/14/AR2009061402241.html

“Perhaps more disturbing to the country music industry is the news that 42 percent of those ardent fans who do not have home Internet access have no desire to remedy the situation.”

But then it happened.  The form letter stating they were no longer a welcome client on the server.  Their hosting was to be cut off, no site, and no way to transition their current site to a new host (due to a proprietary platform on which their current site was built).

This brought up an interesting discussion here at “The Blend”.  Part of our solution for clients was giving them the ability to run the show, first we thought that only from a content perspective.  But in the long run, we’re learning that setting them up with their own hosting is equally as important.  When you own your own hosting solution, there is no doubt that you’ll have an active site (as long as you pay the bills).  It’s the difference between renting and owning.

No matter how secure you think your web solution may be, when you leave it up to another company… it’s only as secure as that companies future.  You’re merely renting that server space.  If the company goes, then, too, goes your site.  If that company decides to refocus assets, change direction, or sell outright, your website could be a casualty.

So the Strategic Blend solution is to set you up with your own hosting.  It’s cost effective, 99.99% up time, and best of all… only you can turn it off.

Own people, the time of renting is over.

We can’t stress this enough OWN YOUR CONTENT, own your site, own your hosting…. don’t leave it up to a company that could go out of business.

If you need help setting that up.   Shoot us an email.

Check out the brand new ChuckMead.com here