New Media Campaigns Blog

NMC Launches Protect the Deduction Advocacy Campaign Website

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:25:54 -0500

New Media Campaigns has launched a new site for the Kansas Association of Realtors. The site, Protect the Deduction, is aimed at Kansas Governor Sam Brownback's income tax reform proposal, which would, among other things, eliminate the state tax deduction for homeowners, a benefit worth an average of $390 annually to a homeowner. Based on previous NMC work with the North Carolina and Arizona Associations of Realtors, the KAR asked us to build them a new site to put pressure on Governor Brownback's proposed reform. In addition to the site, NMC designed the logo identity for the campaign.

The new site features a simple, logical design that ties Kansans to their home state with University of Kansas colors and West Kansas wheatfields in the background. Prominent buttons invite visitors to learn more about the proposal, and to take action (via the Action Center) by spreading the word through social media, contacting local legislators, and/or writing to local newspaper editors. a Fast Facts panel refreshes on each page load in an effort to parse the complex issue into more easily understandable morsels.

The site also highlights a Mortgage Interest Deduction Calculator that invites visitors to find out how much the proposed reform would affect them directly. This direct connection to homeowners is a powerful tool that demonstrates how the proposed reforms would hit taxpayers in one place that hurts: their wallets.

Designed and developed on the HiFi Content Management System for Designers, the site features fast performance, intuitive navigation, and an interactive experience. We hope the new site will help the Kansas Association of Realtors in its campaign to preserve the mortgage interest deduction and help Kansas homeowners.

NMC Launches Site for the American School Bus Council

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:37:50 -0500

New Media Campaigns has recently launched a new site for the American School Bus Council. Designed and developed by NMC on our HiFi Content Management System, the new site boasts a host of features aimed at raising awareness and appreciation of school busses and their drivers. The centerpiece of the new site is the Love the Bus section, with information about the annual campaign to promote the efficiency, safety, and eco-friendliness of bussing, and the hard work of the many safe school bus drivers nationwide.

The new site design incorporates the colors and feel of the ASBC's branding without being overpoweringly yellow, and features both straightforward navigation and some custom tools that round out the visitor experience. The Sign-Up for Updates panel integrates a Salsa Labs API to manage visitor information without taking the visitor from the site, while a News & Media section efficiently corrals the blog, press releases, and ASBC in the news sections, making it easy to find recent information about ASBC activity.

Central to the site and to the mission of the ASBC is the Love the Bus initiative, a month-long campaign to promote school busses and drivers. Because of its importance to the organization, the Love the Bus section of the new site features a custom design to set it apart from the rest of the site, while retaining enough design cues to make it work visually with the rest of the site. This section also features an NMC custom-built eCard tool that allows visitors to create eCards of appreciation and gratitude for their favorite bus drivers.

NMC is very excited about the new ASBC site, and happy to be launching it just as Love the Bus month kicks off in February. The new site is a great platform for the ASBC to continue their important work supporting safe bussing and great bus drivers.

NMC Launches New Website for Law Firm Whitfield, Bryson, and Mason

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:22:51 -0500

New Media Campaigns has recently launched a new website for Whitfield, Bryson, and Mason, LLP, a new firm formed by the namesake partners and featuring a wide variety of legal specialties. With offices in Raleigh, Washington, DC, and Kentucky, the new firm needed a site that showcased their history of accomplishments and made it easy for visitors to find the needed type of litigation and/or the attorney(s) that specialize in that litigation. Coordinating the effort with local designer Rick Binger, NMC took Rick's designs and built a site to launch alongside of print and TV campaigns introducing the new firm.

Even though the firm is newly formed this year, the attorneys involved are no rookies to law practice. It was therefore very important to build a site that exudes credibility and showcases the attorneys' rich history of past success. The site features recent settlements at the bottom of the homepage, and clicking the Verdicts and Settlements button takes visitors to more detailed information about the various cases. A tabbed menu on the homepage makes finding information about the firm's several specialties easy, and directs visitors to relevant parts of the site.

Because the firm's attorney's are spread out amongst three offices, contact information is important, and an Attorneys tab takes visitors to bios of each attorney, along with contact information, and attorney-specific news and current cases in a sidebar, making it easy to find all relevant information about a particular attorney. A key strength of the HiFi Content Management System is that it allows this information to be controlled from a few central locations--whenever a news article or information about a case is added to those sections, it will also automatically show up on the relevant attorney's page.

The site features a blog that can be sorted by both author and category and articles are shareable on Twitter and Facebook, and a news section highlighting the firm's activities.

Alongside the print and TV campaigns, the new website for Whitfield, Bryson, and Mason will help the new firm start out confidently in its new venture and continue their history of success. With HiFi, a hosted Content Management System, powering the site, they won't miss a beat as they add and modify content going forward.

NMC Designs Congressional Campaign Website for Paul Hirschbiel

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:40:32 -0500

New Media Campaigns is excited to announce the launch of Paul Hirschbiel's campaign website as he seeks election as a US Congressman. Designed and developed on NMC's HiFi Content Management System, Mr. Hirschbiel's site illustrates NMC's ability to quickly build out a robust political site, with this one coming together in under two weeks. Featuring calls to action, a straightforward and attractive site design, and the flexibility of HiFi, the site is full featured, easy to manage, and ready to help Mr. Hirschbiel promote his platform through a multi-channel internet campaign.

Donations, volunteers, and communication are all crucial elements of any successful political campaign. To promote visitor participation, some key tabs are highlighted in yellow, including a "Contribute" tab on the homepage and an inline "Sign Up for Updates" at the bottom of the page to catch visitors who have scrolled down and read Mr. Hirschbiel's recent campaign news. It is also very important for politicians to connect with their constituents, and to that end Mr. Hirschbiel's face is featured on the homepage and visitors can find out more about the candidate and his platform on the About Paul and Issues sections. The site also features rotating background images of Norfolk, Virginia, which is in Mr. Hirschbiel's congressional district.

Navigation through the site is aided by visual thumbnails, A "Sign Up for Updates" drop down menu on the homepage, and a streamlined, logical menu system. The donation feature leverages the NGP donation API to accept contributions on the site but process and record them into NGP, keeping the visitor on the site and learning more about the candidate.

Other important features of the site include integration with popular social media channels, and a Features section at the bottom of the homepage that shows the most recent news, tweets, and Facebook updates from Mr. Hirschbiel, all updated automatically when he posts something to one of those sites. A News section allows visitors to dig deeper into the site, and an Action Center encourages visitors to contribute to the campaign through donations, volunteering, endorsing the candidate, or otherwise becoming involved.

The end result is a website that integrates many different social channels into a central site with multiple avenues to learn more about the candidate, contribute to his campaign, and become involved in his election effort. Because the site is developed on HiFi, content management by the campaign team is easy, and the integration with social media ensures that news and information can be spread quickly, easily, and automatically. We wish the best of luck to Mr. Hirschbiel on his campaign trail and we are proud to include his site amongst the many other political campaign websites that we have designed and developed.

NMC Launches Site for the ACA, New England

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:15:20 -0500

New Media Campaigns is excited to introduce the new website for the American Camp Association, New England, an organization of camp professionals that caters both to the public and to other camp professionals. Tasked with providing knowledge, resources, and experience to accredit and promote quality camping, the ACA needed a site that was both fun and useful, just like the camps it serves. NMC leveraged its powerful HiFi Content Management System to integrate an exciting new design with powerful tools and rich content, resulting in a site that is lighthearted and engaging, easy to navigate, and full of useful information.

The new site differentiates between its dual audiences through color coded menus, making navigation easy while maintaining a unified design theme. Hierarchical sidebar menus keep visitors oriented, while tools like the Professional Calendar provide useful information and a way for members to interact with the site. The site features the requisite social media buttons, a news feed, and two homepage rotations featuring informative Camp Stories and featured ACA topics.

The resulting site better communicates the fun of camp while providing a premium user experience. HiFi ensures that the plentiful graphics and photos load quickly, and that the ACA can update and add to the site easily. For anyone that has had experience camping, the site reminds them of friends made and skills developed, and for everyone it provides and engaging and attractive invitation to learn more, become involved, or contribute to the mission of providing quality camping experiences for children.

NMC Launches Site for Midatlantic Employers' Association

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:10:00 -0500

New Media Campaigns has recently launched a new website for the Midatlantic Employers' Association, a member-based group providing human resources support in Pennsylvania. Boasting over one hundred years of experience, MEA needed a website that could easily manage its huge library of resources, leverage scheduling and login tools, and provide a dynamic browsing experience.

NMC partnered with Winnow Creative on this project, with the design agency calling upon its experience working with HR groups to inform its design, and NMC using the HiFi Content Mangement System to develop the site, integrating everything into a seamless experience.

The new site features a blog, the integration of a third-party Calendar of Events, and a custom app designed by NMC to manage new member information and enrollment. Additionally, the site provides a vast and rich amount of HR resources and showcases a host of valuable HR services that the MEA offers.

Over a year in the making, the MEA website was a detailed and intensive agency partner collaboration that resulted in a powerful new website for the client.

NMC Launches Site for Congressional Candidate Scott Peters

Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:18:54 -0500

New Media Campaigns has recently launched a new political website for California Congressional hopeful Scott Peters. Designed and developed by NMC, the new site features an attractive design, functional layout, and the integration of many features that allows the site to act as a hub for Mr. Peters across multiple channels.

A blog, integrated into the new site design from Mr. Peters' existing WordPress blog, an In the News section, a photo gallery, and videos, along with a page of Endorsements ensure that visitors can research Mr. Peters' positions on key issues, and also find out about his personality and character. Designed into the homepage and into the sidebar, these features are always close at hand, allowing the visitor to navigate easily from section to section.

Information about the candidate and his platform, and calls to action to get involved are set against the backdrop of San Diego, the major city in Peters' congressional district. Designed on our HiFi Content Management System, the site seamlessly integrates buttons for social media outlets and leverages the NGP API to collect signup and donor information into an NGP database without taking visitors away from the main site and design.

The resulting site is functional and attractive, with buttons and calls to action making it easy to become involved with and/or contribute to Mr. Peters' campaign. The site's integration of these many modes of current media ensure that Mr. Peters has as much reach and presence as possible, and NMC wishes him luck on his bid for office.

NMC Develops Site for North Carolina's Southeast

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:08:44 -0500

Liaison Design Group worked with New Media Campaigns to develop a new site for North Carolina's Southeast economic development group. The collaboration was a part of NMC's comittment to acting as a web development partner for design firms. NCSE needed an updated site to more effectively present the many assets of North Carolina's Southeast region in order to attract more business and industry to the region. The new site features current best practices, innovative tools, and an attractive and functional design that entices potential businesses to learn more.

When visitors dig a little deeper, the integrated tools help them analyze maps of the area, search available buildings and sites, and even compile customized reports about industry, demographics, quality of life, and other important metrics relevant to their particular industry. Reflecting the needs of businesses in a global economy, the site is translatable into nine different languages via Google translate. The maps, written in Javascript and powered by HiFi, provide pertinent information on virtually any scale, from a global perspective down to the individual counties that comprise NC's Southeast region. The buildings and sites finder leverages real-time information from the state's database to ensure that availability is current. The reports enable business to create reports with as much or as little information as they want, all organized and presented as a downloadable PDF file or for print.

The website for the NCSE is a great example of the power of HiFi and the design boundaries it destroys. Because it is a Content Management System that is very flexible and customizable, Liaison was able to design the site as dictated by their vision and the needs of the clients, without worrying about what the CMS might or might not be able to do. NMC then developed the site according to that design, automatically simplifying URLs, ensuring search engine optimization, and seamlessly integrating the various tools and features of the site.

The resulting site is a great showcase of the region and the assets it has to offer, from defense contracting with Fort Bragg to leisure time at the beach, and everything in between. This project marks more than 20 economic development and municipal websites that NMC and Liaison have partnered on together. As a North Carolina based business, New Media Campaigns is happy to support industry and the economy of our home state.