Notes & Proposals

Be Magnetic»

You need to create messaging that displays your active-ness and to keep at it. In short, be interesting. The bonus: you ARE interesting, it’s a question of how you share it without sounding like you’re boasting.

Analysis: The YouTube Tea Leaves: Stock Imagery, as a Business, is Not Sustainable»

The recent analysis of YouTube’s earning potential by Credit Suisse (reported here and here) points to a big red blot of ink, YouTube is losing lots of money, remains totally subsidized by Google earnings…

Please don’t skimp your clients»

Last night my family chose to get together at a restaurant we’ve enjoyed in the past. Food has been good, the service, the atmosphere, all good. The waitress asked us for our drink order…

Google, Artists, & a Value Grade»

Technology can be a friend to creatives, offering them tools to enrich their creative process. However technology is not a friend to the produce, which enables copy/paste virality by the millions. In order to compensate, Creatives need a shiftable “value grade”

IndianaCity is Phenomenal

PJ Harvey, John Parish & Band, June 11th, Vogue Theater, Indianapolis»

The pre-roll of blues music, meant to set a tone, could’ve been the foreboding instruct, a tell, of the bare-essential instrumentation of the PJ Harvey/John Parish set and band. In larger venues the sound system is the big brother, putting the band on its shoulders, carrying them. At the Vogue….

Indy Makes It Happen!»

There is a new slogan for the Indiana Convention Center which includes the Lucas Oil Stadium: “Raising The Game.” I’ve assumed that…

ArtBabble from Indianapolis Museum of Art»

I am super-enamored with this online video project of the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA), ArtBabble. In short it’s an online video repository/network

Urban Planning Scholar Series event, Transportation for Livable Cities»

Vukan R. Vuchic, Ph.D. UPS Foundation Professor of Transportation Engineering, University of Pennsylvania will be speaking as part of Health by Design’s ongoing Urban Planning Scholar Series.

Ask the Wise Elephant

Q: Is your “active” marketing the same as “inbound” marketing?»

A: It’s fairly similar. Each marketer will have their own key phrase to best describe what it is they do for you. In both of these cases the goals are the same, to gain the client new leads using an active marketing plan (blogs, social media, email). In some cases “inbound” focusses mainly on search [...]

Q: I saw you updated your tag line to “Active Marketing for the New Economy”, what does that mean?»

A: Thanks for your question. Consider a print & mail campaign, billboards, or static websites as “inactive marketing”. Inactive, in that they act like flip-through sales brochures. There is no interaction, no conversation.
“Active Marketing” includes tools & services such as a blogs, social media, and email campaigns that seek to spark interaction and conversation.
In our New Economy your client type [...]

Q: My tiny crowdsourcing/social capitalism client is pondering whether small businesses still want to/can do good in this economy.»

A: This question is from Twitter (from @merredith), though I started on a similar Q/A before this more specific question was posted. The initial question was: In this economy, although I want to run a “good” business (healthy, wholesome, organic food market), should I reconsider and open a not-as-”good” business, a donut shop (high fat, [...]

Q: Does Kathleen Parker’s “Rise of the Twitterati” in the Washington Post editorial page today signify that Twittering is no longer cool?»

A: This question comes from Twitter, from Dennis D. McDonald, a technology consultant. There is so much buzz about Twitter these days, about the best way to use it, who is using it, and why. Mainly what I see in this buzz are traditional PR and marketing rock-stars carving…

Example Projects

The Design Vote (network)»

To build/alter a modifiable blog-template for one main site (thedesignvote.com) that could be used to create new sites within the growing “Vote Network”.

Michael Grodner, Music Video Director»

Ongoing email and telephone follow-up campaign to get Michael’s reel into the hands of the contacts most likely to hire him.

My Name is Sarah»

To build a blog/site for the presentation and distribution of a video series in support of Barack Obama’s candidacy. The site needed to feed the blog posts to both a Twitter account and Facebook as status updates to help grow the ongoing audience.

VLANY.org, Holiday Card Website»

VLANY.org needed a solution to both offer and manage images for their holiday card program, we built the site based on specific design and functionality criteria.

Galaxy 61 (motion graphics)»

We seek reel requests and meetings for Galaxy 61 within specific markets.

Chameleon Brands»

We gain leads for Chameleon via research and telephone follow-up.

Like a Bike USA»

Wise Elephant designed and built a new e commerce website for Like a Bike USA (LaB) to sell these very unique children’s bicycles.

EHAPC; Ellen Honigstock Architect»

We designed and built a clean/simple HTML website and consulted EHAPC on business plans and on starting a blog.