Welt Branding interviewed Adam Booher, Account Executive at Business Wire. Adam is Welt’s point-of-contact at the company and has been a tremendous help in projects and gathering of information. The amazing experience we’ve had working with Adam sparked a question: how do the expertise and quality of an organization’s employees help their clients?

Q: What exactly is Business Wire?

A: Business Wire delivers search-optimized press releases, multimedia, and regulatory filings to worldwide media, investment professionals, consumer websites and opinion leaders via a patented delivery network, enabling communications professionals to target content to industry segments, geography, and audience demographic.

Q: What is your role at Business Wire?

A: My role with Business Wire is to consult organizations on our services to help communications and investor relation professionals to attain their goals. I try to accomplish this by positioning myself as a resource to my clients. If there is a local event or webinar that I know they would be interested in, I make sure they know about it. Additionally, I do my best to stay informed of trends within the industry. There is so much going on with social media, search, mobile devices, etc. that it is nearly impossible for my clients to follow it all. The more I know, the more I can help them and that is an advantage I can provide.

Q: How does Business Wire stay relevant in an era when print news demand has declined?

A: Business Wire has a history of innovation and for being a ‘first-mover’ within the industry. In 1995, we were the first newswire service to launch a commercial website. In 2006, we received a U.S. patent for our proprietary NX News Delivery system. Today, Business Wire formats and provides analysis tools to maximize Search Engine Optimization (SEO), audience measurement analytics and social media distribution of our clients’ news.

One of the great examples of this was when news broke of the death of Steve Jobs. Business Wire ran press releases from Apple and the family of Jobs, and within seconds Twitter had exploded with tweets about Steve Jobs. This resulted in a surge of traffic to Business Wire’s website and is a great example of how new and traditional communications platforms compliment one another.

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Superbowl Sunday is watched just as much for the game as it is for the commercials. Getting a spot on the commercial is pricey, at a whopping $3.5 million bucks for a 30 second spot. But, is the price is worth it? Well, each year the commercials not only receive millions and millions of live impressions, but also stream virally on YouTube and are shared on other social media platforms. Blogs compare, experts rate, consumers comment, we all watch. An example?  In 2000, when Anheuser-Busch aired their now iconic “Wassup” commercial, “Wassup” was adopted into American vocabulary after it aired. From commercial on the Super Bowl, into Merriam Websters. That’s impact.

This year, Welt noticed that, more than usual, Super Bowl commercials are being previewed before the big game. As of February 1, fourteen brands, including the ever so anticipated Volkswagen, had launched the commercials. But why? Anticipation makes the commercials all that more exciting. Continue reading »

Welt Branding sat down with Mike Dover, co-author of Wiki Brands: Reinventing Your Company In A Customer-Driven Marketplace, and had a discussion about a few of his branding insights and their impact on businesses. Wiki Brands discusses what companies have done in the past, what they are doing now, and what they should be doing with branding efforts. The authors analyze the effects these efforts have on brands, and highlight some key concepts any executive or marketer should consider.

Don Tapscott’s research program known as Marketing 2.0 initiated Wiki Brands. Dover ran the operations for this program while Sean Moffitt, co-author of Wiki Brands, wrote its research papers in conjunction with other faculty members. The two were granted permission to take existing work and expand it to book form by continuing their own research as well as updating existing results.

Here is a sample of their findings:

Brand managers make a series of mistakes in their branding efforts, which can be simplified into three elements.

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This year there were a number of campaigns that either affected our buying behavior or changed our opinion of a brand. Below are the five brands that were most influential to us brandlings.

Ford – Campaign: “Drive One” and “Swap Your Ride”

Growing up, everyone we didn’t like owned a Ford Explorer, and unfortunately, we began to associate our dislike for these people with that of the Ford brand. This past year, Ford has been heavily marketing its brand and products through a couple campaigns.

The “Swap Your Ride” campaign allows customers to drive a Ford vehicle for a week and then talk about their experience. The advertisements that cover this campaign are hosted and endorsed by Mike Rowe – who was named by Forbes magazine one of “Hollywood’s 10 Most Trustworthy Celebrities”.

The “Drive One” campaign is composed of actual Ford customers who come to the dealership to take part in a focus group. When they arrive they are led into a room that opens up to a surprise mock press conference.

These 2011 campaigns changed how we saw Ford, although both debuted a few years ago: “Swap My Ride” in 2007, and “Drive One” in 2008.  We don’t cringe at Ford cars anymore, in fact, we “check them out” when they drive by on the highway – and we’ll admit we’re very jealous of their 40mpg fuel economy.

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December marks the awakening of the Christmas spirit – and what is Christmas spirit without Holiday songs?

Brandlings put together a list of our favorite Christmas songs and songs that remind us of the Holiday season. Initially, we intended to create a top 10 list that we would share with our readers, however… when compiling everyone’s favorite songs, we very quickly realized that top 10 actually meant top 30.  Who really has just one favorite Christmas song anyway?

So, clank your mugs of egg nog, decorate your tree, enjoy your family, and get into the holiday spirit! This list has something for everyone. We have funny songs, hidden gems, classical, pop versions, and, of course, traditional.

Here is sample of what you have to look forward to:

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, Jackson Five
Christmas Time Is Here, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Vince Guaraldi
Baby, It’s Cold Outside, Dean Martin
You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch, Thurl Ravenscroft
All I Want For Christmas Is You, Mariah Carey
Carol Of The Bells, John Williams
Do They Know It’s Christmas, Feed The World, Band Aid
Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Ella Fitzgerald
Santa Baby, The Swingle Singers
Rock Around The Clock, Bill Haley

If you want to listen in, we’ve shared the play list through Spotify on our Facebook page. Check it out!

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