Ideavise in the News - Travel Tips on msnbc.com - Hotels pinched by tech-savvy guests

Hotels pinched by tech-savvy guests

iPhones, other devices threaten to make in-room services obsolete

From the article:

Traveling to Las Vegas for a conference last month, Brian DeLong could have gotten annoyed when he found out his off-Strip hotel charged a fee for Wi-Fi in his room. Instead, he whipped out his iPhone 4, fired up its Personal Hotspot software and accessed the Web "for free" via his iPad and laptop.

"They wanted $10 or $15 a day," said the founder of Ideavise Inc., a marketing and technology solutions company. "The crazy thing is it's like 20 bucks a month for me to get it on my phone — and I'm not even in the room that much."

The full article can be found here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43067230/ns/travel-travel_tips/

2011 PRSA WDC Presentation (PDF) on Developing a Mobile Media Strategy

Here's a link to the PDF version of my presentation at the 2011 PRSA WDC on developing a mobile media strategy and mobile application trends and considerations.

http://www.ideavise.com/uploads/PDF/PRSA_2011_WDC_mobile_strategy.pdf

Thanks #PRSAWDC for the speaking opportunity and a great event.

Ideavise presenting at the PRSA 2011 Western District Conference this week

Ideavise is headed to the Public Relations Society of America 2011 Western District Conference in Las Vegas this week. We developed the mobile web application for the conference, (Visit http://prsa2011.ideavise.com on your iPhone or Android device) and I'll be presenting a talk on Thursday entitled "Developing a Mobile Media Strategy for your PR Objectives". Looking forward to meeting some new folks and having some great conversations. Overview of the presentation:

"Developing a Mobile Media Strategy for your PR Objectives" 

Brian DeLong, Ideavise, Mobile Media Applications

The mobile space is changing the game for both your internal users and your customers. Employees and customers are increasingly more mobile, with heightened user expectations and changing workflows and interactions. Leveraging and innovating in this space is critical to both acquiring and maintaining customers and employees. It requires understanding of both new functionality such as geolocation, near field communication, and QR codes as well as the constraints of the medium: data speeds, intermittent connectivity, touch interactions, and screen real estate. All of this must be taken into account when developing a mobile strategy and associated applications. It's more then just making smaller versions of existing assets. Come learn about the latest trends and tools you can use to help develop and define a mobile strategy for both your internal and external users. 

Finally got our hands on an iPad2

Sorry for the dely in posts, we had a post queued up on the performance benchmarks we were getting with our mobile applications on the iPad2 but couldn' t get our hands on one. Thanks to the perseverance of one of our great friends we were finally able to procure one. Should have benchmarks and a post later this week. First impression of the upgrade is fantastic. The new form factor and magentic smart cover is awesome.

iPad 2 - It's all about the cover

The big news this week for us at Ideavise was the iPad 2 announcement. We're huge advocates of the new "post-pc" tablet ecosystem that Apple is "pioneering". This second generation mobile device is stepping things up a notch and there are a lot of things that we really like - the most easily visible being the new cover that was announced. I have held off buying a case for my first generation iPad because all of them seemed to take something away from the experience rather then adding to it. This new cover design is the first implementation I've seen that enhanced the overall iPad experience. For me this is what really sets Apple apart from the competition - they realize it's not about the display size, processor speeds, memory, 4G vs 3G environments or other quantifiable or tangible specifications, it's about the intangible qualifiable experiences. This is why we're super excited about the quantifiable spec increases, not because they are bigger, badder, or faster then anything else out there, but that first user impressions are that this thing feels like it's flying. It doesn't matter what the specs are, it's the feeling that the thing is super fast. It's the same experience you have when you first use a Macbook Air and it's "instant on". You don't really care what the specs are, you care that it does what it does, and you're delighted. There are plenty of competitors with "better" specifications but none with the same delightful experience, it's why I switched from a PC. It's also what we're most excited about, the new iPad specs provide us with the ability to enhance the experience our users have with the mobile web applications and paperless systems we're building, regardless of what their tangible numbers are.

PRSA 2011 Western District Conference - Ideavise 'Everything About Us Is Mobile' Ad

I'll be attending the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Western District Conference to speak on Developing a Mobile Media Strategy for your PR Objectives, more details to come. Here's the "Everything About Us Is Mobile" ad we did for the conference: http://www.ideavise.com/uploads/PDF/ideavise_PRSA_conference_ad_2011.pdf.

Ideavise In The News - Everything about Ideavise is 'mobile'

Colorado Springs Business Journal: Brian DeLong and his six employees at Ideavise, Inc. are always on the move. They don’t have an office so they hold staff meetings in cafes and coffee houses in Colorado Springs and work anywhere they can catch a ride on free Wi-Fi. It’s a running joke that a couple of Ideavise employees are scarcely ever seen. But that’s what Ideavise is all about: mobility.... Full article here (requires login): http://csbj.com/2011/02/18/everything-about-ideavise-is-%E2%80%98mobile%E2%80...

PDF version available on our website: http://www.ideavise.com/uploads/pdf/Ideavise_CSBJ_02_2011_optimized.pdf

Ideavise In The News - The State of the Slate - Wild Blue Yonder Magazine

THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB

In fact, if the iPad is any indication, the tablet as business tool has enormous potential. Consider, for example, the case of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), the non-profit organization tasked with testing the nation’s Olympic athletes for prohibited substances. Looking for a paperless tool to give its agents in the field, the group turned to Ideavise, Inc., a marketing and technology solutions company.

Together, they came up with a plan to purchase up to 75 iPads and create a dedicated app so field agents could complete forms, capture athlete signatures and transmit the appropriate data to labs and USADA headquarters—all at a fraction of the cost of the purpose-built machines and software the group had been considering.

“You could do the same thing with a laptop or a netbook, but the interface is kind of clunky,” says Ideavise founder Brian DeLong. “For this use case, and probably a lot of other cases, the iPad is a game-changer.”

Full article available here: http://wildblueyondermagazine.com/the-magazine/business-class/the-state-of-the-slate/01/2011/

Colorado-based Professional Services Firm Attending Interbike 2010 to Showcase Mobile Development for the 'Paperless' Workflow

September 20, 2010, Colorado Springs, CO— Ideavise, a creative and professional services agency with locations in Colorado and California, is excited to announce their attendance of the 2010 Interbike trade show in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 22nd and 23rd. Ideavise will be utilizing their time at Interbike to seek out new client relationships and demonstrate their latest project, a browser-based web-application built around the integration of a 'paperless' workflow into existing corporate software suites and databases, as well as enterprise software integration using cutting-edge tablet devices such as Apple's iPad and various Android devices anticipated later this year. According to Ideavise, the most obvious application of this technology is within the wholesale and distributor channels. A 'paperless' workflow has the potential to offer a direct, digital information connection to sales reps, field marketing agents, and other company assets. This system facilitates streamlined communication, order placement, fulfillment and tracking from 3G and wireless enabled devices. Here are just a few of the intrinsic advantages of the 'paperless' workflow:

• Minimizes the spread of sensitive, proprietary information
• Reduces the operational costs associated with the acquisition of office supplies as well as the time spent faxing and photocopying
• Takes a crucial step in reducing or eliminating the 4,000,000 tons (8 billion pounds!!!) of office paper which are annually discarded in the United States [1]

In addition to their 'paperless' demos, Ideavise will be promoting their abilities in the fields of print and web design, broad-based marketing, ecommerce implementations, brand identity consulting, and more!

"We're excited to bring this technology to Interbike, " says Ideavise partner, Brian DeLong. "Mobile technology has been touted as the next big thing for several years now, and we are proud to be able to serve our clients with an environmentally significant 'paperless' application which can be integrated into a variety of enterprise platforms." Ideavise Partner and Creative Director, Jason Lombard, is equally enthused; "The outdoor industry is a unique niche market, and our clients benefit directly from our two decades of combined experience in this market." He continued, "Instead of spending valuable client dollars getting up to speed on history and trends within the industry, we're able to hit the ground running, adding tangible value to client projects quickly and cost-effectively."

According to the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) [2], over 95% of business information is stored on paper. Additionally, the manufacture of paper is the 3rd largest consumer of fossil fuels worldwide [3]. Ideavise is committed to the development of cutting-edge technologies that will improve the efficiency of the production and communications cycle of any business as well as reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and the dependence of the United States on foreign sources of these fossil fuels.

About the Company

Ideavise draws on a rich history of expertise within the outdoor recreation community—spanning almost 20 years. During their employment at cutting-edge brands like Santa Cruz Bicycles, Light & Motion, Carmichael Training Systems and Fox Racing, company founders Jason Lombard and Brian DeLong noticed a void in the market. They noticed that large-scale agencies existed to satisfy the needs of the larger corporations, while smaller companies went largely unserved. As a response to this need, Ideavise was born in 2008 as a full-service creative and professional services agency specializing in design, marketing, brand positioning and technology solutions for small businesses. With offices in Colorado and California, the Ideavise team boasts an impressive client list from the outdoor industry and beyond, including: the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA), Somnio Running Shoes, Rotor Bicycle Components, Alison Dunlap Adventure Camps, Giving Every Child Knowledge of the Outdoors (GECKO) and many others!

###

Contact
Jason Lombard
(831) 915-1919
jason@ideavise.com

[1] American Forest & Paper Association, 2004
[2] International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) Discussion Paper (IIED, London, September 1996)
[3] American Forest and Paper Association, (Garner, J.W. - Energy Conservation Practices Offer Environmental and Cost Benefits. Pulp & Paper, Oct. 2002).

Social Media Working Better for Retention Than Acquisition - eMarketer

via emarketer.com

Campaigns to acquire new customers have not taken off

Social media marketing has been around for several years, and as marketers begin to converge on best practices and use the channel in more uniform ways, it is emerging that their top goals are brand awareness and cultivating customer loyalty. Conversely, customer acquisition through social media is less important.

A July 2010 survey of US marketers by the Direct Marketing Assocation and COLLOQUY found that brand awareness was the most popular objective of social media efforts, followed by customer growth and loyalty.

A July eROI study similarly showed brand awareness was the top goal of US marketers using social media, and business-to-business (B2B) marketers reported the same to BtoB magazine and Business.com. In April, search marketers surveyed by MarketingSherpa cited increasing brand awareness and improving brand reputation as the two objectives for which social media marketing was most effective.

The DMA and COLLOQUY also looked at average marketer spending in various areas of social media marketing and how it changed over time. While marketers started out in 2008 spending similar amounts on branding, customer loyalty and customer acquisition, by 2009 customer acquisition budgets had failed to grow as quickly as the others. Customer acquisition budgets more than doubled twice between 2008 and 2010, but they still lagged behind the even more dramatic growth of spending in other areas.

The report noted that customer acquisition is a more important goal for smaller companies, which often use social media as an inexpensive marketing channel. Those companies are devoting budget to gaining new customers through social media, but by definition their budgets are small. They are overshadowed by large companies who have chosen social media primarily as a venue for cultivating customer loyalty and spend more heavily in that area.