Design4 Marketing Communications today launched its 20th year of serving national Christian ministries, pro-family issue advocacy groups, and public policy organizations with the announcement of the D4 Mobilizer, a new mobile marketing tool.

Known for high-impact messaging and media, the agency is expanding its service 
capabilities with the addition of mobile marketing, a technology-driven form of 
advertising and communication activity aimed at consumers and conducted over a mobile channel, such as a smart phone. Go to  www.design4.org/Mobilizer to view a short video demonstrating how it works.

“The Design4 Mobilzer enables our clients to create a quick, low cost-per-contact 
dialogue with their supporters or customers. It helps increase reach, influence, and even funding,” said Clint Cline, Design4 President.

Heading the new mobile marketing initiative is Design4 Senior Marketing Director Lesley Shackleford Bateman, a former AT&T marketing and public relations director  and an early pioneer in internet marketing.

“Our clients will be able to acquire new supporters and donors, mobilize campaign volunteers and activate voters for a few cents per message,” Bateman said. “They can easily control the amount spent on a campaign – or on a regular basis – by the number of messages sent.”

According to Nielsen, more than 77% of US wireless subscriber lines subscribe to or purchase text-messaging capability. Text-messaging has become a new mainstream vehicle to market every product and service and is ideal when mobilizing support around important political and cultural issues. An understanding of the “texters” 
and how they use short-code marketing is critically important to ensure ongoing growth and effectiveness.

“For the past 20 years we’ve given Christian ministries and conservative pro-family groups a creative and constructive voice in the public square,” said Cline.  “That means producing fresh ideas…daily…and employing new, high-tech, high-leverage ways to speak them into the culture.” 

About
Design4 Marketing is a national full-service marketing communications firm located
in historic downtown Plant City, FL. Visit www.Design4.org, follow us on Facebook www.facebook.com/design4 or on Twitter @d4mc.

Washington, DC (June 16, 2010) –For 90 minutes yesterday, a standing-room-only crowd attended a briefing at the Capitol where researchers and a former pornography actress revealed information on the repulsive and addictive nature of today’s internet porn, and called on the federal government to prosecute the major producers and distributors of obscene material.

“Our efforts today are not partisan because the protection of children, violence against women, addiction and sexual trafficking are not partisan issues.  Nor are we here today to quarrel with Attorney General Holder,” said Patrick A. Trueman, former chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, U.S. Department of Justice.

“The Attorney General previously indicated support for the enforcement of obscenity laws.  We are asking that the prosecution of obscenity, which seems to be on hold in the Obama Administration, be given a high priority because of the widespread harm we now know that obscene material is causing.”

“Statistics show that 7 in 10 kids have accidentally accessed pornography and 1 in 3 intentionally.  Internet pornographers are great innovators and use clever and deceptive marketing tactics to push their drug to anyone and everyone,” said Donna Rice Hughes, Enough is Enough President.  “The majority of porn sites have free teaser images and videos on their home pages and do not require any age verification.”

“Howard Stern regularly features pornography on his show, Miley Cyrus, the former Disney star who is a role model to young girls everywhere is photographed for Elle magazine, sprawled on a table wearing S/M gear, and students at Yale University invite pornographers to give talks on campus,” said Dr. Grail Dines, professor of sociology and women’s studies at Wheelock College in Boston.  “These simply illustrate how porn has seeped into our every day world and is fast becoming such a normal part of our lives that it barely warrants a mention.

During Dines’ remarks, several members of the audience were noticeably affected by the repulsive, violent, degrading acts she described to demonstrate that today’s pornography is not traditional Playboy-style images.   Dines, the author of a newly released book, “Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked our Sexuality,” described how pornography is the major form of sex education for boys, and as it seeps into mainstream media, for girls as well.

“Bled dry of intimacy, connection and emotion, porn sex is reduced to a technical, plasticized, formulaic generic act that men do to women as a way to demonstrate the power they have over them,” said Dines.

To underscore the impact of pornography on society, Dr. Mary Anne Layden, Director of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program, University of Pennsylvania said, “The American Psychiatric Association has added Hypersexual Disorder to the Diganostic and Statistical Manual-5 which will include both sexual addiction and pornography addiction. Pornography may be ingested through your eyes but its impact is not just on your genitals but also on your brain, so it fits the addiction definition perfectly.”

“Adult pornography normalizes sexual harm and provides children visual examples of lack of emotional commitment, unprotected sexual contact, and visual examples of violent rape in many cases,” said forensic pediatrician Dr. Sharon Cooper, University of North Carolina.

“Obscene pornography has NEVER been considered protected material by our U.S. Supreme Court and the porn criminals do not have a right to pollute America with such material,” said Trueman.

Federal obscenity laws prohibit distribution of hardcore obscene material on the Internet, the majority of the pornographic material that is available on the Internet; on cable/satellite or hotel/motel TV, the pay-per-view porn that most cable/satellite companies and hotels carry; and in sexually oriented businesses, porn shops and other retail shops that trade in hardcore porn.

“The U.S. Department of Justice has a criminal section devoted to the prosecution of obscenity with 93 U.S. Attorneys spread throughout the country whose job is to enforce federal law,” said Trueman.  “When they enforce obscenity laws, they help establish community standards.  The majority of Americans would like to live in a community with high standards.”

To view the briefing online, go to www.youtube.com/user/PornHarms.  For additional research and resource information on pornography, visit www.PornHarms.com, www.obscenitycrimes.org and www.SocialCostsofPornography.org.  Access obscenity law summary here: www.pornharms.com/enforcement.

About The Coalition for the War on Illegal Pornography

The Coalition for the War on Illegal Pornography is an effort associated with the Pro-Family Forum on Pornography, a group of national and regional organizations which collaborate for the purpose of education, strategic planning, and action on the issue of illegal pornography. The group has met on several occasions with the Department of Justice (DOJ) asking for enforcement of the current federal laws prohibiting interstate transportation of illegal pornography.

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PORNOGRAPHY HARMS: WHAT CONGRESS CAN TO DO ENFORCE EXISTING LAWS
A briefing for members of Congress and their staffs featuring lead researchers and an ex-porn star's personal experience with pornography

Media Contact: 
Lesley S. Bateman | Design4 Marketing
813-849-0076 ext 106 | Cell: 813-335-7060
Lesley@design4.org

Washington, DC (May 25, 2010) – The Coalition for the War on Illegal Pornography today announced the lineup of speakers for a major briefing at the United States Capitol Visitors Center ~ HVC-201 at 11 a.m., June 15, entitled “Pornography Harms: What Congress can do to Enforce Existing Laws.” The event is open to every member of the U.S. House and Senate, their staffs, the Capitol press corps and the public.
 
Experts from a variety of backgrounds will speak on four leading harms of pornography, how existing laws can and should be enforced against illegal material and what Congress can do to protect and prosecute.

The lineup includes:

•    Dr. Mary Anne Layden of the Sexual Trauma and Psychopathology Program at the Center for Cognitive Therapy at the University of Pennsylvania who will address the addiction to pornography;

•    Forensic pediatrician Sharon Cooper, M.D. of the University of North Carolina who will address the harmful effects of adult pornography on children who view it;

•    Internationally acclaimed speaker and author Gail Dines, Ph.D., Professor of sociology and women’s studies at Wheelock College in Boston who will discuss her studies on how pornography debases men, women and the culture.

•    Attorney Laura Lederer, perhaps the leading voice in America on human trafficking, who will discuss the link between pornography and sex trafficking.

•    Former pornography star Shelley Lubben (www.shelleylubben.com and www.thepinkcross.org )

who will address how the pornography criminal enterprises treat women in the industry.

•    Donna Rice Hughes, the leading voice on internet safety for children in America, who will address the urgent need to protect children now from the harm of Internet pornography. 

•    Patrick Trueman, former Chief of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the US Department of Justice,  who will close out the event discussing the fact that NONE of the Federal laws against illegal adult pornography are currently enforced by the U.S. Department of Justice and what Congress can do to enforce these very laws.

 
A growing body of research suggests that the habitual use of pornography — especially Internet pornography — can damage people of all ages and both sexes, negatively impacting their relationships, productivity, happiness and their ability to function in society. Event information may be found at http://bit.ly/cL551APornHarms. For additional research and resource information on pornography visit www.PornHarms.com and www.SocialCostsofPornography.org.

About The DC Group on Pornography
The Coalition for War on Illegal Pornography associated with The DC Group on Pornography, a group  of national organizations which meet quarterly in Washington, DC for the purpose of education, strategic planning and action. The group has met with the Department of Justice (DOJ) on several occasions asking that Federal Laws prohibiting interstate transportation of adult obscene pornography be enforced.

# # #

As a business owner, it is vital to your organization to ensure the proper media outlets are being utilized in order to provide publicity for your organization.

I recently read an article from the Center for Media Research, which discussed how often journalists rely on public relations professionals to receive accurate information concerning their story. It also said reporters use social media tools to find information they may need.  However, they are cautious to use these sites because social media sites are not always reliable.

These two results pose the question: How is your organization being portrayed to the public through social media and public relations tactics?

Therefore, it is very important to utilize social media tools for your organization as a way of free publicity, as well as to put information on the Internet through a company Web site.  The Web site will provide reliable, thorough information for anyone, including journalists.

However, having a reliable public relations representative may be able to provide you with access to more publicity, including a direct link to the news media. 

“Don Bates, founding director of the GWU Strategic Public Relations program, cautions that, though ‘Social media provides a wealth of new information for journalists... getting the story right is as important as ever... PR professionals... have a responsibility... to ensure the information they provide journalists is accurate and timely...’”

 According to the survey in the article, “most journalists turn to public relations professionals for assistance in their primary research.”

“44% of editors and reporters surveyed said they depend on PR professionals for ‘interviews and access to sources and experts’

23% for ‘answers to questions and targeted information’

17% for ‘perspective, information in context, and background information’”

Having a public relations representative is crucial to the growth and prosperity of an organization. Design4 is just the place to help you with those public relations needs.  From promotional videos to a publicity strategy, we can help you get the word out about your organization.

Ever wonder what impact social media might have in the future and how you'll be impacted? In an article from Advertising Age, experts say in 2012 social media will be completely intertwined with the Internet.  Socially-enhanced experiences on the Internet will become commonplace and friend networks will become portable.  It will create a more personalized setting as a way to promote ideas to target audiences.  Every Web site will eventually have some sort of interaction with its audience through the use of social media tools.  Therefore, it is imperative to stay up-to-date with these new tools.

1. Want to know how to maximize Facebook for your cause or business? Check out Facebook's APIs: Application Programming Interfaces with the newest called Facebook Connect, which is designed to make friend networks portable.  It links Facebook profiles to another Web site in order to allow your friend network to be able to see all the sites you follow. This generates a large amount of awareness for other sites, as well as a way to target new audiences.

2. Since Content from your friends is more relevant to you than content from strangers, it's no surpirse to see the emergence of  Google Social Search, which is going to revolutionize the way search engines format their seach results.  Google Social Search is designed to help you discover relevant publicly-accessible content from your social circle.  It pushes blogs and Twitter information from personal networks to the top of the search engines results as a way to help you discover relevant publicly-accessible content from your social circle.

3.  A third tool is consumer ratings, a useful tool to help optimize the consumers experience.  Without user ratings, the site could lose impact, which would be detrimental to the growth of the site if the user is not happy.  Feedback will become much more prominent of the actual Web sites.

Keep updating social media in your organization and look to the future for new ways to grow on the Internet.

Did you know that more than 70% of U.S. Internet user watch video clips? That percentage is larger than blogging and social networking. Besides Google, YouTube is the most used search engine.

This fact reverts back to the adage, "Show me, don't tell me."

iMedia Connection recently wrote an article about The Fine Art of Video PR. They listed a few helpful hints: what to include in composing a video, where to place the video online and how to receive exposure from target audiences.

Recent studies have shown that people are more likely to trust their peers than other expert's advice.  Therefore when composing a video, it is best to incorporate testimonials, case studies or reviews into the video.  These third-party sources can provide credibility for your organization.

However, gaining exposure to a video can be even trickier than composing it.

First, the video must be submitted to as many online aggregators as possible, such as video sites (YouTube), corporate sites, social media profiles (Facebook), SMNR's (Social Media News Releases) and SERP's (Search Engine Results Pages).

Then to increase exposure make sure to add compelling titles, such as "How-to", as well as keywords, descriptions and tags. For company sites, add meta data to pages and embed the video on the page.  Make sure to include keywords, images, links and RSS feeds to support the page optimization.

Lastly, share the video with those whose testimonials you have used so that they will show their peers and possbily post it online as well.

By following these steps, you can Show and Tell your audiences what they need to know about your organization.

For some examples of video at work, visit Design4's video page, and for more detail on the strategy we used to gain exposure, email Design4 Marketing Communications.

History in the making again last week as we had the pleasure of helping the Family Policy Council of West Virginia (FPCWV) in its efforts to convince lawmakers to let the people vote on the definition of marriage. At least 78 percent of registered West Virginia Democrats say they support a marriage amendment that was introduced with broad bipartisan support, but key lawmakers continue to block efforts to place it on the ballot allowing the people to vote. The leader of the FPCWV called us knowing there was less than a week to mobilize supporters and church leaders so their voice could be heard by legislators. Only a few days before he launched a petition drive among West Virginia voters with the goal of 2,500 signatures in a week as evidence to lawmakers that the people wanted to vote on marriage and knew that lawmakers were obstructing that vote. Discussions led to a decision to hold a marriage rally and press conference on the steps of the state Capitol, just a few short days away, and deliver the petitions in person.

Design4 Marketing worked hand-in-hand with him to develop media and messaging that included:

• scripting for a radio ad that ran statewide

• signage and graphics for the web site and on-the-ground

• press releases and media alerts

• email messages

• identifying and utilizing key influencers through social media to encourage people to attend the rally and sign the petition

The results? Amidst freezing weather and snow, more than 150 people showed up on the steps of the West Virginia capitol building, where the executive director and general counsel of the FPCWV delivered two large boxes, saying:

"In these boxes are more than 4,600 petitions, asking for a marriage amendment. We told leaders here we would collect 2,500 in less than a week. Instead we gathered nearly double that."  (By Friday, 5,416 petitions had arrived).

Don't ever underestimate your abilities when you've got the right message!

Not only do email campaigns bloom with the addition of social media, but so do other types of marketing campaigns. Our experience echoes this writer's sentiment:

"...it's easy to think that social media is choking off all marketing efforts.  Truth is, for email marketers, social media is one of the most useful tools available to make campaigns bloom with more targeted, relevant and successful emails."*

By including a social sharing feature in email campaigns, marketers can extend the reach of those campaigns by letting members do the sharing with others who they feel will be interested in receiving emails.  Like the old shampoo commercial: "They'll tell two friends, and so on, and so on."  The result is a boost in brand awareness."*

We recommended one client add a social media component to a traditional targeted radio advertising campaign – and it increased traffic to their web site by 10-fold! By targeting influencers and like-minded individuals, we significantly extended the reach of this campaign.

For more information on how we did it, contact Design4 Marketing Communications.

Of course!

Do billboards, radio, TV, or print ads have value if there's no direct response?

Of course! 

We recently counseled a client that "click-thrus" in online advertising and social media can be likened to "direct response" and their "message views" as "brand awareness." A recent study proves the point that online ads can help improve exposure, brand recognition and brand identity. 

"According to Nielsen, one of the top trends in the coming year among advertisers will be to accurately measure activity and link online ads to offline purchasing behavior. A study was done recently by comScore, aimed to understand the impact of online display advertising. The results showed that unclicked ads still had a very powerful impact on the consumer. Further, the likelihood of consumers performing a search using the advertiser's branded terms increased 38%, while consumers' likelihood of buying the advertiser's brand either online or in a retail store increased by 27% and 17% respectively. These statistics provide evidence of the power of online ads, clicked or not, in the digital realm."

When creating a campaign, remember to measure the full realm of its impact, whether in brand awareness or direct response.

The New Year kicked off at Design4 Marketing with an avalanche of radio and TV/web ad scriptwriting and production. With our signature humor, we've taken typically dry material to make a point and, in these cases, encourage action. We're building on this successful model by integrating social media and mobile marketing opportunities into these campaigns. 

Everyone loves a success story, but one jumped out of the fourteen examples in this recent article on social media success:

Case-mate "Recession Case" drives record sales. Andrew Knight, VP of e-commerce, readily admits he was skeptical when a 22 year old on the marketing staff brought him the idea of selling a cardboard case for the iPhone (see image, above). Appropriately dubbed the recession case, this would retail for 99 cents.

"My initial thought was that this was never going to work. I was thinking we might sell a couple hundred but most of them we would just have to give away. What I underestimated was the power of social media!" said Knight. What happened is that Knight had met blogger Larry Greenberg through Twitter and Greenberg posted an article about the Recession Case. The next day, almost every major tech news site picked up on the recession case: Gizmodo, Engadget, TechCrunch, CNET, Mashable, etc.

"We broke our daily site traffic record by five-times and we set an all time revenue record in the same day! Our Facebook & Twitter traffic skyrocketed as the story spread virally and people shared it with friends and family. In four days we had sold over 7,000 recession cases! It was truly unbelievable how fast it took off," said Knight.

Case-mate also offered free personalized "Sharpie Script" on the recession case. This sparked a mini-phenomenon of its own, as people were buying cases for each other to simply send a personalized message (aka being social).

Knight points out another added bonus of the social propagation, "Our search rankings have improved nicely. Our two most important terms are 'iPhone case' and 'iPhone cases.' We are currently #1 for both of them on Google!"