The only thing that sets you apart is your story. – 4th Avenue Media

By Chelsea Sontra

To infinity, and beyond! No, Buzz Lightyear is not in the running to win a sub-orbital space flight, but Mercer Island’s very own Roger Ressmeyer is, and he is just as passionate as any other space ranger. As an adult, Roger could live the dream of any child who has ever gazed upon the night sky and wondered how he or she can get up there. With your Facebook votes you can help him do more than just look up!

Member of Canon’s celebrated Explorers of Light Program and former President of PACA (Picture Archive Council of America), Roger has been pursuing his astronomically successful career in space photography for 40 years. His frequent clients have included National Geographic Magazine, Life, Time, Newsweek, People, and Rolling Stone among others, working with both the stars we see in the sky and those here on planet Earth.

Roger’s story has been the stuff of dreams, but it has also been one of overcoming adversity. As a child he aspired to be an astronaut, building model rockets and polishing telescopes. Diagnosed with diabetes at age 13, Roger defeated claims he wouldn’t make it another 20 years. Today he finds himself inspiring youngsters who share his same passion for space, guiding students every year in building and launching their own rockets. Maybe they’ll be future candidates for future space races, just like Roger is today!

Technology saved Roger’s life, and now it can also allow him to achieve his lifelong dream. Space Race 2012 will allow him to dedicate his trip to sharing the wonder and awe of space exploration. But first, we have to get Roger up there!

Your votes, yes “votes” plural, are the only way that can happen. You can vote once per day on Facebook to help Roger win the Space Race challenge. But hurry, because this really is a race! The voting period ends Sunday, March 18, so your vote each day from now until then makes every bit of difference. This is for every kid who has ever wanted to grow up and have a rocket lab in his or her basement, just like Roger does.

For Roger Ressmeyer, Space Race 2012 is about scientific progress, global compassion and hope. It also involves your votes. 5…4…3…2…1…

To vote: https://apps.facebook.com/spaceracecompetition/entries

By Chelsea Sontra

I recently attended a lecture by a notable figure in the typography industry. Never mind the distractions of a thick accent and the debonair airs he put on in his flawlessly tailored Parisian suit, the message of his talk was clear: image shows both where you’ve been and where you are going. As s typographer, obviously the focus of this idea for him has been centered on perfecting fonts and what they convey.

Admittedly, I do not come from a background in design, and so his technical jargon was of little significance to me. Nonetheless, I couldn’t help but be struck by this seemingly obvious notion that what a company’s logo looks like is so much a part of their brand, if not the sole symbol of a brand or business itself. Think of this in another way. The moment a person looks at logo for the first time, they get an impression. To that person, those words, shapes, curves, lines, images and colors are the only thing they know about that company. It’s all they have to go off of, and maybe that’s all they will ever know if they don’t pursue further interaction.

Whether you are comfortable or not with the idea of being so easily represented, or even misrepresented, by a minor element in a broad schema of image-making criteria, the reality is that is business. To everyone else who doesn’t know that company, the logo is that company. So don’t sell yourself short in the design aspect of self-presentation.

At 4th Avenue Media, who we are is very clear in what we look like. We are true to who we are in the way that we have chosen and continue to visually present our company. If you hadn’t already taken a wild guess, victory is our business buzzword, what we pursue on a daily basis and the core of our personality. We don’t take image lightly, but project it boldly and mightily without reserve.

In the process of refurbishing our company this year, we are building on our past, taking those experiences with us, and utilizing and channeling them to become what we envision for our future. That’s why it makes sense for the introduction of our new logo as a 4th Avenue Media twist on the American flag. As a company we are channeling the meaning of “Old Glory”. We’ve been through the wear and tear to see the resulting rewards, growing stronger with each experience and learning from everything we do to continuously build toward greatness. There’s a lot of history behind “Old Glory,” and yet the image of her has stayed tried and true throughout the centuries. This is an image of perseverance, determination, pride and triumph.

Much of who we are is what we do, and that is displayed in our branded visual imagery. So why don’t you ask yourself, “How am I going to choose to represent my business?” There is an underlying pool of reasons that makes you, you, but only you know that. The goal is to make others acutely aware of what they should know about you before you even get the chance to tell them.

By Chelsea Sontra

4th Avenue Media is experiencing massive growth, and we’re so excited about it! We hope to keep expanding as the year progresses, and a big part of what we want to continue to see happening is an increase in business to business marketing. Why, you ask? Simple. We want to give our clients the best possible experience and help them grow. If our goal is to help businesses grow and reach people, and it is, then the best way to do that is reaching deep and facilitating their definition of who they really are. To do this is to portray the most honest and true being of their business to the world. No false advertising. What you see is what you get. No false build ups, let downs or mismatches. At the core of any good business that wants to expand its reach is a good reputation. Reputation is rooted in trust, which is formed through positive interactions, which creates relationships. And staying true to your business in its branding is a way of maintaining those key relationships, by trusting in the sincerity of those interactions.

In branding a business, “Who are we?” is the ultimate question. It will guide every action from the moment you start your business on out. Declare yourselves boldly and in truth, and the effects will be significant and prosperous.

By Chelsea Sontra

Folks, it’s official. 4th Avenue Media is taking the horse by the reigns and declaring ourselves to be what perhaps we have been too humble to admit in the past: we are an ad agency. We are moving beyond the safety mask of referring to ourselves as being a digital media marketing company. Essentially, we brand companies, and that is advertising in its purest form.

The term ‘ad agency’ can sound a little haughty, and I think that is why we have strayed from identifying ourselves as such. We are not haughty, and yet at the same time we must have a title that matches our description. Here at 4th Avenue Media we are confident in our skills, creativity, and the vision we have for our clients. We mean to proclaim, as our enthusiastic founder Lucas Mack so often does, “Victory!” Victory for our clients, while also serving as the definition of  how we choose to conduct and pursue business.

Think of us as an accumulation of the best qualities that can be found among the cast of ‘Mad Men’. We have the talent of seeing what people want, which they may not even realize is there, and the ingenuity and initiative to deliver in a relevant way, while maintaining the respect of all who know us (a la Don Draper). We have the creative talent and all around nice-guy attitude of a Ken Cosgrove, and the drive and ambition of a Pete Campbell. While we may be a younger company, we are in no way lacking the establishment, client-satisfaction and strong relationships that more aged companies have, like a Peggy Olson type.

It’s the early stages of a new year, and 4th Avenue Media has plans to dominate. You can expect great things to come from us this year as we work to serve and direct our clients to attain victory for their business. For us personally, it starts with content marketing. Besides our blog, we are active on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Check us out on those mediums if you haven’t already. Following us means you’ll get a healthy dose of information, insight, inspiration and a good laugh to bring it all home.

It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

By Chelsea Sontra

The power has been, and will continue to shift from the vertical institutions to horizontal networks, that is, if corporate images allow for the democratization of power through social media. Power is shifting from these institutions to networks, and social media is a great threat to corporate social interaction, organizational behavior, management and governance.  There is undoubtedly fear being felt among structured public and private organizations; a fear of entrenched hierarchies being shaken. Social media by definition is overlapping authority, uncertain boundaries, layers of identity and the absence of centralized power. Whether used to link communities, share media, etc., these sites hold the appeal of cutting across boundaries. I think that on the whole we can all pretty much agree that is a worthy cause.

The tried and true cannot be shaken: power resides in networks. The scary or intensely liberating part of this (whichever you choose) is the fact that sharing knowledge means surrendering power. This power is dispersed throughout citizenry, democratizing the power once shared by institutions to the people affected by them or who consume their products. The silver lining of globalization is reinvention of the corporate scheme to become adaptable and smarter. Some may be cynical about this, claiming that leveraging social media to the benefit of the company is a cheap shot at using consumers. What better way to conduct business that to directly engage the thoughts and opinions of your consumers? Escaping the corporate bubble of recycled information and ideas within a hierarchy to expand and collaborate outwardly is vital, and social media can help do just that.

Yesterday on our Facebook page we posted an article entitled “How Pinterest Is Changing Website Design Forever.” It is no wonder that Pinterest’s website deign elements are popping up all over the Internet. It does exactly what we have been talking about: flattens the information hierarchy. No only does its layout put the control into the power of its users, but it also promotes a collaborative network of information sharing on the Web among users, bloggers, website producers and corporate giants (i.e. Martha Stewart).

Users are put into the role of quasi content producers by locating data, linking it to pictures, which then get posted on people’s pin boards, perpetuated, shared and enjoyed. As users are led to blogs and websites they find more things they are interested in, causing them to become regular followers, and in turn share this information and allow even more people to do so. Resultantly, sites get more traffic and are able to reach a more diverse group of Internet users, further democratizing an already collaborative system developed by Pinterest. So thank you, Pinterest, for showing us what we can hopefully look forward to seeing more of in the very near future.

By Chelsea Sontra

“The aggressive form of his brushstrokes implies a sense of vigor that underscores the artist’s aim in juxtaposing his work with petit bourgeois culture.” Or how about this, “The use of formal elements here are so grandiose that one can really only confer value on it that will relegate it to passe forms of the prewar avant-garde.” Say what?

The world of art has historically been reserved for the cultural elites, connoisseurs and critics. The upper class gets the privilege of deciding what is high art and what it kitsch, what school or country has taken the lead in the international art scene, etc. Arguably, the postwar Americans were the ones who strove for new forms that were distanced from European traditions. They submerged their works in primitivism and commentary on popular culture. America has been dubbed a museum culture. We like to look at “pretty” and “cool” things without really knowing anything about them or their context, or so they say.

The reality is, art has been made difficult to obtain by the common man. It’s expensive to see an exhibit, and often museums are primarily in urban and cosmopolitan settings, where the majority of the middle class is not. People don’t often take time from work and drop big bucks for the jet set lifestyle, cruising the cultural hubs of the world and spending four days to browse the Louvre or the Met in their entirety.

Whoever thought you’d be able to virtually walk around the floors of museums in London, Florence, Berlin, and Versailles (just to name a few) from the comfort of your own computer? Google Art Project apparently did, making art available to the masses. Not only can you walk around and explore some of the world’s most highly acclaimed museums, but you can look at artworks at zoom levels that you wouldn’t dare be allowed by testy museum personnel. Heck, go ahead and touch it! While you may not be able to physically feel the rise and fall of Van Gogh’s thick impasto paint technique, your eyes will have a nearly limitless means of gauging a variety of works and styles. In being virtually transported to another country you are allowed to cut through the airport security checkpoints, avoid the crowds and lines of people eagerly awaiting to view the masters and save yourself from spending a pretty little sum in the process.

Nobody is stopping you from experiencing art how it was meant to be, personally and in the most egalitarian fashion. This is just another way the World Wide Web is democratizing our opportunities to engage in subsets of culture that have been previously denied to us.

Hope this puts you in a cheery mood this mid-winter day!

By Lucas Mack

When I started this company in 2008, I wanted to give companies the ability to tell and show their story, both through traditional means, but also digitally.  This all starts with a process I created called Language, Culture, Brand.  Your “audience” or your customers are engaging with your brand on an everyday basis, but what they are really engaging with is your culture.

The question I ask our clients before we work with them, “Does your current brand truly reflect the culture in your company?”  Usually the answer is no, so that’s where we start.  I’ve heard it said that the word brand is like the word love, everyone has a different definition for it, but let me give you ours.

Brand is your story told and displayed honestly.  When I was a reporter at www.kabb.com in San Antonio, TX I would interview celebrities and one in particular, who I loved growing up was a complete jerk and rude in public, but as soon as the camera was on him and I started the interview, he went all humble and the dimples came out.  People watching what he did were turned off and walked away as I was interviewing him.

How does that relate to you?  Here’s how, if your brand is showing your company as better than you are and your audience engages with you and it’s not what they expected, they’ll walk away disappointed, tell their friends and you’ll lose business.   The same goes with your brand not reflecting how good you or your company really is.  So what happens if people engage with your brand and your website or logo, or messaging doesn’t reflect you when they meet anyone from your company in person?  They’ll walk away with a negative feeling towards your brand and you won’t earn their business.

The answer is to honestly tell your story and display your brand through messaging and design and then engage and build your audience around your culture.  When people see your brand anywhere, they should be able to walk through your doors and not experience a disconnect with what you say you are through your brand and who you really are.

We just branded a company called Settlement Prep (www.settlementprep.com).  They came to us with a need to accurately reflect who and what they are as a company to an audience who is receiving a lot of noise in this field right now.  So we put them through our Language, Culture, Brand test and what came out of that, was a revelation of their brand, logo, collateral, website, messaging, social media strategy, videos, advertising and PR all wrapped accurately with who they are and what they can do for their audience, so when engagement is made, there will be no disconnect and their business is growing!

If your brand or messaging needs help, don’t waste anymore time advertising or marketing your company until you accurately reflect who you are.  Just make sure you know who you are in the first place.

www.4thavenuemedia.com

By Chelsea Sontra

If the Obama administration’s media team has a slogan, I’d bet serious money that it is, “Go big, or go home.” I am continually amazed at how extensive their marketing tactics to engage the public are, and they work! Obama’s “cool factor”  drew previously politically uninterested citizens into his orbit during his campaign to become president, and his tactics to draw in and educate the public certainly have not lost momentum over the last four years.

For those of you who happened to catch the State of the Union Address two nights ago, you probably noticed the #SOTU Twitter hashtag on your screen. Viewers were invited to tweet their thoughts and opinions on the president’s assertions, with the @whitehouse identifying further and more specific hashtags related to the topics and issues covered in his speech. The interactivity didn’t stop there. Beforehand you could watch behind the scenes videos leading up to the address on the White House’s YouTube channel, submit questions via YouTube’s moderator tool (Obama will answer the top-voted questions on January 30 during a Google+ Hangout), and participate in a viewing party and panel discussion. During, you could view an enhanced version on the White House website (complete with live viewing, graphics, data and stats), while also tuning in on Facebook and Twitter. After, you could pop over to John Boehner’s YouTube channel to watch the Republican Response, submit questions to White House Senior Advisers, translate the speech into other languages via the PBS News Hours subtitle team, and later on the 30th watch Obama’s responses to questions on Google+.

Whew! That was exhausting just writing all of that! But I think you get the point. The White House has got their bases covered. They are utilizing the hottest social media and making sure the effect of the President’s speech lasts past the point of his actually giving it. They are doing this by giving citizens the chance to look forward to further engagement.

Not only is the government doing it big, but they’re also being constant in the seemingly unending flow of communication, while providing ceaseless opportunities for engagement. The hopeful result? Americans are becoming more educated and aware of issues, with the goal being for them to vote for Obama in November.

This shouldn’t be limited to just the political arena. It is because of the government’s incredibly visual social media presence that I think we can truly say it is setting the example for businesses in their approach to marketing. American businesses have the tools to be just as visible as the White House, they just have to seize the opportunities that have already arisen for them on the Internet. It is important for businesses to locate their strengths and play up those on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, and whatever other techniques will make them omnipresent. This is a rather “duh” statement, but many fail to fully cement their businesses in these vital practices. There are hundreds of millions of people on the Internet, and they’re waiting to see you reach out to them in an intentional way.

By Chelsea Sontra

Years ago, in 1967, Stanley Milgram asked the question, “How many acquaintances would it take to connect two randomly selected individuals?” His goal was to find the “distance” between any two people in the U.S. Sending letters to two random individuals, one in Wichita, Kansas, and the other in Omaha, Nebraska, he wanted to see how many immediate links it would take to get the letters to two pre-selected people. One was in Sharon, Massachusetts, the other in Boston.

What were his findings? It only took two immediate links to get these letters to their destination. Later, Milgram would coin the phrase “six degrees of separation,” finding that this was the average “distance” between people in the U.S. What did this mean? Links between acquaintances were many. Particularly with the advent of communication technology within the last half of the century, and the rise in popularity of social media sites over the past decade, the world as we see it within these frames is shrinking. Social links that may have died out a hundred years ago are kept alive and can be easily accessed today.

In 2000, the average degrees of separation between any two webpages was 19. In 2012 there is undoubtedly more data and a greater degree of diversity of information on the Internet, yet the degrees of separation have probably decreased from 19. A common networking principle is, as the number of links between nodes in a network increases, the degrees of separation between nodes decreases, and the value of a network increases. In conjunction with the idea that 45 years later the number and variety of first-name acquaintances has mushroomed, one can conclude that more links coming to your page will allow more people to find you on the Web. These links don’t have to be reciprocal either. It’s as simple as someone liking your Facebook page, following you on Twitter (which may also be linked to Facebook), and posting data that can be obtained via search engines, such as the very blog post I am writing here.

The case in point I would like to make is that whether you are running a Fortune 500 company, or a small business, you have the strength of links to power your brand. All you have to do is find them or create them, and put them into action.

By Chelsea Sontra

That 140 character limit can be so excruciatingly painful sometimes. With Twitter constantly updating it can be a challenge to make a strong visual footprint in the mind of your followers, especially when they are probably following people who have jucier things to say than your business will allow for. You have so much to say, so much content you could post, and yet you find yourself significantly limited to do so. Or perhaps you struggle to find content adequate and catchy enough to tempt the eye of followers and potentials. There is hope for you, dear friends.

Where to start? How about following companies and brands you like? Chances are they may start following you back. Maybe you’re struggling to know who exactly to follow, or are looking for a greater community to follow for marketing ideas and information. Utilize Twitter’s ‘Who to Follow’ feature, which does the work for you by making recommendations based on who you follow and categories you’re interested in. WeFollow and Twellow are also resources that will help you find contacts who are influential marketing contacts and conversationalists.

53% of people use Twitter to promote products, and 50% of reporters say they use it for story ideas. Why not follow suit? Go ahead and use Twitter to keep tabs on your competitors and existing fans. Sound a little sinister? It shouldn’t. Twitter can become your own market research tool by tracking network trends. You want to know what your customer wants, so what better way to achieve just that by getting into the minds of people you’re trying to serve? Admittedly, we often use Twitter to reach a broad audience of people. However, using Promoted Tweets can help your business target a more niche audience to serve their needs.

Don’t be afraid to tweet questions to your customers and clients! Customers love feeling they can influence companies, but someone needs to ask them their thoughts first, and that responsibility lies with the company and their social media producer. And while it’s great to get positive feedback, make sure it’s also useful to you as a company. This can be in the form of posting questions relevant to specific areas being explored in your business. Don’t let people’s responses be the end of the conversation, however; answer back, engage them, and people will be surprised by the personal nature of your tweets. Along those same lines, it is an important consideration for businesses to not get too caught up in self promotion. Sure, you let people all about what you’re up to, but self-centeredness shouldn’t be your aim.

One last key point is to make sure that all this information and ideas coming in through your social media is actually being reported to key players that actually make decisions about the company. People monitoring social media should be regularly checking in to relay information that may not have been seen by big decision makers.

The key to social media such as Twitter is really all about communication, which is exactly what’s being done when you post to it. By being more intuitive and creative, companies will be on their way to reaching more people who can influence the direction of their business by providing valuable content.