Social Media is not "Crystal" Clear for AMA Houston

We had no idea what to expect. Kayleigh Kannady and I were super excited to be considered a finalist for the AMA Crystal Awards and were ready to accept our prize.  My stepdad said, "When I heard Rachel had been nominated, it never occurred to me that she wouldn't win!" Thank you sir, I take that as a compliment!

Marketing Campaign - Medium Budget ($25,000-$150,000)

Winner: Atos Origin
Atos Origin in the Spotlight

I had just got home from the SapphireNow Conference in Orlando, Kayleigh was sporting a seven-month baby bump so we decided together to go business casual to the "Gala".

Wow, were we ever surprised. There was much glitz and glamour at the Crystal Awards Ceremony. I suppose we should expect nothing less from the people that do this for a living. Well done AMA'ers.

The venue was packed with over 500 attendees. The entire show was broadcast live by Omnovia. You can see us walk up (waddle up in Kayleigh's case) and pick up our prize. It was neat to go home and be able to show my girls after the show. See more vendors who helped here.

I was however a little disappointed in the build-up to the event. After jumping off the SapphireNow bandwagon, it was odd not to see the AMA putting on the same kind of show in the social media space. At SapphireNow, I had vendors coming up to introduce themselves in person, as we had been tweeting/facebooking each other for weeks building up to the show. It was really neat to see everyone come together.

SAP of course has a huge budget, and AMA is ran by volunteers, I realize that. However I really think we could join forces and do a little better at our online elbow rubbing. Maybe a little PR for the event? Maybe a dedicated twitter? Maybe a blog? I did like the idea of the projected tweets... that was cool.

Maybe I'm not looking hard enough. AMA Houston social media buffs, where art thou?

I want to drive the Marketing Experience!

Wow, where have I been?! Apparently, Girlfriend Getaway is the new term for "staycation"... and Chevrolet has got the market covered in that arena. http://www.girlfriendgetawayhouston.com/

I've heard the radio commercials that offered free massages for a test drive. Good for them I thought. But why haven't I heard of the Girlfriend Getaway?! Who knows, but I'm glad I did. The gig, find several metro based women to drive a Chevy branded car and blog, twitter, facebook, and vlog all about it on about it in front of the camera.

Now, I don't need a car for four weeks, but I sure could use a marketing high for a month! MAN! what a fabulous campaign. My hats off to Velocity Marketing for spinning this campaign. I really can't wait to see the ROI from this. The branding among women is phenomenal.

Looks like the first campaign was Mommy Madness in Houston. They had the Traverse to test drive. They were a bunch of soccer moms... pfft. I want a cool car. I'd like to take out some clients, video some of the "hoity-toity" women around our Houston Galleria office... Let's see what these chicks really think. The car looks fabulous. Would they even know what they were getting into? It would be cool to have a "hidden camera" type video blogging. I'd like to take a bunch of these IT geeks around. What do they think about the gizmos? I'd take my 16 year old daughter out with her friends... is it cool enough for them to be seen in? Will the valet guy leave the Malibu all shiney and up front at the Hobby Center? Will the Malibu go with my Cheetah dress when I go on date night with Toddy? Ah... maybe I should just do a secret campaign if I don't get picked. I'll do my own test drive! :) That would be awesome.

Anyway, its a great campaign. Get some known social media experts with legit backgrounds and steady stream of acceptable comments and reviews. Even if I don't get chosen (which you should totally pick me) I'll be watch the stream of comments from the campaign. But man! with all this campaigning... shouldn't you be easier to find? :(

With love, Future Marketing Engine --I mean Malibu Test Driver :)

Must be something in the Atos Sphere TM

What's this? Cloud services branding without using an actual cloud? Well done, I say. The newest sevice launched officially as Atos Sphere TM today. As with any good corporately governed marketing group, the guidelines for this baby have been laid out well in advance.

First of all, the name is "Atos Sphere" not to be confused with atosphere, or atomsphere. Our main message to the public is that Atos Sphere allows you to "Shape the Cloud Your Way". This implies that we have several options for our clients, and no there is no standard. Then, we come to the SPHERE. I really like this look. It gives us creative types a chance to use some creative imagery. The sphere represents the cloud becoming "clear". Get it?

So, hip hip horay for the team. I'm glad you didn't use an actual cloud. With so many Cloud offerings out there, its getting harder and harder to be creative!

"Best" Videos? Says who...

This CloudAve blog link originally came to me from Twitter. I'm really into looking at videos these days, as we just bought our first video camera and are currently setting up the template guidelines for film and production.

CloudAve sites these videos as the "10 Best Enterprise 2.0 Videos and Presentations in the last month". First, where did they get these videos? How were the recommended? How were they rated? Are they based on content? Because they surely aren't based on time and effort put into production.

So I wonder... is it really necessary to go through all this trouble of production? Do people really listen to the video, kind of like a pod cast, and not really even look at it? It sure would be nice to know... especially if these videos can make a Top 10 list and be so amateur.

Of course, I like the Salesforce Chatter presentation, mostly because its FLASH, and not really a video. And I sure do like that voice over... nice.




Not only is this video awesome... Its like an EPISODE. While things like this are hilarious to me, are they good for business? Is this kind of production worth the effort? In my book. Absolutely.



That said... this is more the route I'd like to go. HILARIOUS in my book. It gained the most attention when it was actually "withdrawn" for being risque. In the world of viral video, that is GOLDEN.



and for good measure: www.youtube.com/atosoriginus

I see what you mean!

It's come to my attention that Powerpoint is an outdated form of communication. Really? Well, I agree...but only the way YOU use Powerpoint. Today, you can insert Flash files and even do slight animations that make an old ppt file look like a fancy work of art. We intend to do both in order to explain complex solutions that involve onshore, offshore, clients, b2c, b2b, front office, back office (shall I go on?)



Atos Origin UK has an amazing marketing group. They also have some of the coolest presentations in our portfolio! Thanks to their vendor "See What You Mean" Atos Origin UK has taken presentations to the next level. Check out the vendors website. Check our their website and find the clients tab. From there you can chose to see some samples of several projects they worked on for the UK group.



One of the coolest samples is for the London Games in 2012. Its completely interactive. Click on whatever you like to see a portion of the Games that we help deliver. This is a huge effort, and sometimes very confusing when trying to explain to customers. I really believe using multimedia will solve several issues.



Atos Origin has several solutions that sell "nothing". We're selling our technology, application skills, or our people. Its difficult to market without a widget. There's no pretty shiny picture of a solution, so you have to conceptualize it. Of course we can continue with flow charts, and maybe even some fancy visio with avatars... but hopefully, this trend of interactive multimedia will take hold and become the norm.

I just wanted to give a shout out to the UK...this stuff is AWESOME!