A perpetual work in progress, today we officially unveiled our new creative reel on our Facebook Page. With the popularity of Facebook and the fact that Pages can now be indexed by Google, it kind of makes you wonder why we need to have a website at all. Think about it and hit us up with your thoughts. To our regular followers, please take a moment to head on over to Facebook and become a fan of Rearden Killion Communications.
On the heels of such a massive election cycle, it's hard to believe that the local races are already in full swing.
We were happy to see a The Times wrap up of the St. Petersburg mayoral candidate websites give kudos to the strategic use of video and social media for Scott Wagman while touting his "Mission to Listen."
"Mayoral contender Scott Wagman has a Web site that also links to his Facebook and Twitter features. On Facebook, he wrote that he digs Anita Baker and Caddyshack. His Web site has YouTube videos of residents talking about why they love the 'burg. In fact, his site seems to be more about what residents think than self-promotion, which supports his campaign's stance that he's still in the listening-to-voters stage."Visit Scott Wagman online or on Facebook and check out his Mission to Listen below.
The news of Rearden Killion's Facebook success made it to the print version of the Tampa Bay Business Journal. I'm happy to say we've received a lot of interest since news broke and even signed with a member of the US Congress. Who is it? Stay tuned.
A campaign using the advertising and social media tools on Facebook is getting credit for Kevin Beckner’s win in the District Six democratic primary for Hillsborough County Commission.
The Facebook campaign, kicked off in early August, was more targeted and cost-effective than traditional advertising, according to a release from Rearden Killion Communications, a St. Petersburg firm that handled the campaign with political consultant Larry Biddle.
The campaign, including content, video production, management and media buying, was valued at about $7,000, Rearden Killion said, although the company also said it charged a bit less to prove the effort could work.
Beckner, 37, a certified financial planner, won 45.6 percent of the vote and defeated Joe Redner and Denise Layne in the Tuesday primary.
Facebook advertising tools can target specific user variables such as age, gender, education, profession, employer, interests and hobbies, the release said. The ads themselves also can address specific issues.
In one example, Beckner used a Forbes article about the lack of opportunities for young adults in Tampa to call for more proactive business recruitment efforts on the part of the County Council. The video had nearly 700 views and online discussion, the release said.
Rearden Killion also created a Facebook application, allowing supporters to put a campaign button on their own pages and providing a link to Beckner’s page.
The overall effort increased Beckner’s Facebook group membership by 50 percent, the release said.
In November, Beckner will face incumbent Brian Blair, who won the republican primary with 65 percent of the vote, defeating Don Kruse.
ReadWriteWeb
Written by Sarah Perez / August 28, 2008 9:00 AM
In Tampa, Florida, one of the cities that comprises the megalopolis known as the Tampa Bay area, home to Busch Gardens, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and only minutes from beautiful beaches on the Gulf Coast of Florida (oh, and this author's stomping grounds, too), a local politician is giving credit to Facebook for his recent win in the primaries for the local County Commission.
On Facebook, the crowd is still very young, with an average age of 22.96 as of this February. Typically, the youth vote, although coveted, could not be counted on thanks to low turnout of young voters at the polls. However, this small time local election may prove to be one of the first examples of the huge impact Gen Y can have on the political process.
Now that many members of Gen Y are of voting age, their sheer numbers can no longer be ignored by politicians. The biggest generation since the baby boomers, Gen Y has been poorly characterized by some as lazy, unfocused, and self-centered - a generation that would just as soon stay home with mom and dad than go out and climb the corporate ladder. While it may be true that Gen Y has the good financial sense to maximize their time in rent-free accommodations, they are certainly proving themselves the opposite of lazy when it comes to involvement, be it social involvement, community involvement, or political involvement. Considering this recent "Facebook-powered" win, it could be that this generation is all talk and all action, too.
According to Rearden Killion Communications, the St. Petersburg advertising firm that handled the campaign of Kevin Beckner in the District Six democratic primary for the Hillsborough County Commission, the Facebook effort comprised of content, video production, and media buying valued at around $7000. There was also a Facebook app which let supporters put a campaign button on their own pages and provided a link to Beckner's page. The overall effort increased Beckner's Facebook group membership by 50 percent.
In this local election of this County Commissioner, you have to wonder if this is a hint of things to come in the upcoming presidential election here in the U.S. The Obama campaign has defined themselves by the way they have embraced technology. From blogs to social networks to even SMS text messages announcing the VP, the campaign is "a revolutionary shift in our country's political media ecology," says Andrew Rasiej over on techPresident. Although it has yet to be seen whether or not the use of technology will propel Obama into the Oval Office, the results of this local election prove that there is merit to targeting the online crowd and asking for their vote.
We’ve followed it all along. And so has the media. Our client, the Merlin Law Group handed out checks to forty-eight Central Florida families, finally providing them with the funds they so desperately needed from their insurer years ago.
While relatively new in the States, in-store point-of-purchase video has been in use for quite some time across all of Asia. There are 14 million people living in the 17-city area that makes up Metro-Manila alone. Of course with a population like that, traffic jams on the streets often make their way to the grocery store lines.
With an aggressive approach toward customization, Metrobank is now allowing consumers the opportunity to log online and create personalized credit cards with the photo of their choice.
The program will soon be given a boost via this video Rearden Killion produced that will appear on point-of-purchase screens across the Metro-Manila area and may also become our first television commercial.
Being pleased with the production, the Bank is considering using the video as a prime time commercial spot. Now that would just be grand!
John Kerry almost became president, Eddie Murphy almost won an Academy Award and The Chicago Cubs… well. The world is full of “almost made its”, and we’re no exception.
Not wanting to see great ideas go to complete waste, we’ve decided to start this occasional blog topic for those RK works that didn’t quite make it, but are worth sharing anyway.
Qué gi was the brainchild of one of the greatest beauty product minds in history. His various product line inventions grace the shelves at top day spas and high-end department stores across the country and the world. Unfortunately, as much as I like to drop names, I cannot do so here—so you’ll have to trust me.
While not dead in the water, the originally well-funded Qué gi 5-in-one firming emulsion line suffered at the hands of a slowing economy and has been shelved for the time being, and not in the way it was meant to be. But thanks to the internet, we can share the idea with you anyway.
When it comes to successful package design, getting prime real estate in a crowded marketplace (eye level on the shelf) takes unique art or design that retailers think will draw interest and thus, increase sales. It also helps with how much the store will attempt to market the product through its sales people.
With that in mind, we came to the table with some highly visual designs that also played on the products natural elements and environmental friendliness.
Executives at the company finally decided on the grass and blue sky. Hopefully someday, you’ll see it while shopping at Neiman Marcus.
On a recent trip to Asia, we came across the DreamTime Publishing Open Your Heart series of books on sale at National Bookstore.
We’ve been with DreamTime since the beginning-- Before printings, distributors, reps and trade shows, we were with founder Meg Bertini as she realized her dream as a publisher and budding motivational speaker.
Today, Bertini has her own take on motivational speaking, Vegas style as Madame Meg, teaching folks how to Find Their Sexy.
Looking back, we’ve come a long way and seeing our product half way round the world was pretty cool.
Results: The firm signed 23 new insurance policyholders who had been undecided about where to obtain legal help.
-Nathan Golia
Rearden Killion, 820 Ninth Avenue South, Saint Petersburg, announces the launch of these Web sites: PDC Affordable Housing at pdcaffordablehousing.com; and for Merlin Law group, katrinalawyers.com.
As a side note, this item neglected to include our parter on the PDC Affordable Housing website, Larry Biddle who handled online strategy development for the project. Since they didn't include it from our release, I will make a note of it here.
Visit Larry at www.PlanningWorksOnline.com. We also developed his site.
Rearden Killion Communications, 820 9th Ave S, St Petersburg, announces the launch of Web sites for DreamTime Publishing, St Petersburg, at DreamTimePublishing.com; and for Bon Secours, St. Petersburg, at BonSecoursStpete.org.
Rearden Killion Communications announces the launch of Web sites for Submedia of New York at Submediaworld.com, which showcases Submedia's outdoor motion picture advertising system, and Brown Security PA, Saint Petersburg, a security service company at BrownSecurity.biz.
Some of you have asked me why we used external resources to showcase our work and manage the blog of our new website.
If web 2.0 is driven by user generated content, then it certainly makes the world an easier place to congregate. Virtual public spaces combined with search make it easier to share your message and be found by people who might actually be looking for it.
Consider a 2005 survey where 72% of people said they began their search for a product or service online. Just look at how important YouTube and Myspace are to political candidates, the entertainment industry and just about every major brand in the universe.
While we have the programming skills in house to develop our own galleries and blog, as we have done for many clients, we decided to see if we could tap the grass roots power of the internet to share our work. Netroots, as it is called, allows us to proliferate our own brand and associate it with “tags” or key words that make sense to our industry and those we have served.
So, while the internet continues to make the boundaries of geography, time and space less relevant, the age old saying “it takes a village” has probably never been more accurate.
Rearden Killion Communications announces these new accounts:
PDC Affordable Housing, St. Petersburg, develop brand messaging and public relations programs for statewide workforce housing projects, and PDC's affordable-housing Website; Bon Secours Place, St. Petersburg, develop a new print advertising campaign; Hattaway Communications, Boston, to develop the company's Web strategy.
REARDEN KILLION COMMUNICATIONS, 820 Ninth Ave. S, St. Petersburg, announces the following new accounts. For PlanningWorks, St. Petersburg, RKC will develop the company brand and an integrated online strategy that includes a Web site with blog and contextual advertising; for InteliTec Systems Integration, Largo, RKC will develop a business-to-business campaign that includes trade show support, Web development, public relations and strategic planning; and for DreamTime Publishing, St. Petersburg, RKC will develop a brand strategy for a series of self-help books, brand and title development, online and offline communications strategies and graphic design.
Mission Accomplished:
Yes, the client is very cool, but trying to get coverage in the US for an event happening on the other side of the world is a tall order. While all the Star Wars hype was dying down in the US, opening date in Asia was July 7th. Weeks before, the Asian distributors created an original movie trailer (not seen in theaters) for this system which turns static images into a 15 second motion picture outside of a subway window. Glad to say we came though with a news item and photo that ran in both the New York and Los Angeles editions of Variety-- which is exactly what the client wanted as indicated by this message from the ceo:
"Brian,
Good job! This is the exact type of press we are looking for. This is perfect for our company's initiatives."
'Sith' tunnels promo on subway walls
World Brief
By PATRICK FRATER
The July 9 Japanese release of "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" is being boosted by a novel form of promotion.
A specially cut, 15-second trailer will screen on the tunnel walls of Tokyo's Ginza subway line from Monday to July 14.
The technology, based on the 19th century Zoetrope, is provided by New York-based Submedia and is normally restricted to static images.
Twentieth Century Fox Intl.'s Japan release of "Revenge" is the first to use Submedia for a movie trailer.
