Peppermint Schnapps is more than the liquid equivalent of a burning candy cane; it’s also a splendid elixir of truth. Of course, many truths at Broadstreet are omnipresent: brands come first, the best people produce the best work and the communication and messaging are the stars of any successful project. However, the Broadstreet holiday party taught us two more truths about ourselves:

1) We like to mug it up in front of the camera more than we’d care to admit.
2) We love peppermint Schnapps.

Enjoy…

It’s the Holidays. For some that means pints of eggnog, for others it means catty disputes with family. We enjoy both of these just as much as the next creative marketing & communications agency, but thought we’d give you something a little different this season. It’s not a lot different; just a little — like the work we do for our clients. Click on the image below for our digital video card to you; our final exceptional experience of 2011. We passed on a physical card this year. Not only is what we have to offer more green, but we feel ‘Holiday Card Pop-Up Technology’ is no longer making significant strides in progress on a year-to-year basis.

So relax, kick your feet up and tell your coworkers to pipe down — happy holidays!

Six miles to the other side of the world.

That’s how it felt before I stepped foot in Brooklyn. Hailing from Hoboken, on the Jersey side of NYC, there is nothing that seems further away than the deep-v neck, pashmina scarf, plaid flannel; skinny jean uniform of the hipster crowd I assumed inhabits Brooklyn.

Conveniently, one of my friends moved to Brooklyn at roughly the same time her frustration with my ignorance on what lies east of Manhattan was bubbling over.

After a (cautious) stroll through Brooklyn Heights and a glimpse of the fanfare of Brooklyn Bridge Park, I chuckled to myself.

It was the same as Hoboken. The aesthetics, the vibe, the demeanor of the population – it was eerily similar.

And why shouldn’t it be?

Both places are each one river away from the lifeblood that gives them reason for being, New York. Each place has its own atmosphere that borrows heavily from the city in between.

We often mentally put distance in between things that are so close to us. It might be a self-defense mechanism, or mentally categorizing things makes them black and white enough to manage. Whatever the reason is, it makes no sense. We do this in relationships, interests and at work.

How different can you and the accountant be? You’re colleagues, are part of the same culture, probably around the same age and live in virtually the  same area.

It’s horizontal, inter-departmental relationships that usually produce the most amazing ideas. At Apple, a new hire interviews with the head of each department (marketing, engineering, sales, etc.) before being hired. Those who don’t work in your department know enough about the company to offer insight, but their viewpoints are different enough that it’s an alternative perspective.

Being the catalyst of this type of working relationship could give your company a better product, your team better projects, and you more recognition.

Try the water cooler a floor up from you tomorrow; you might find it’s similar to the one right by your desk.

To all Brooklynites reading this, I’m happy to give you a tour of Hoboken. You can even wear your skinny jeans.

For the fourth year in a row Broadstreet has been named to the Special Events 10th annual ‘50 Top Event Companies’ for 2011. The list is comprised of global industry leaders in the field of events, and those on the list are considered ‘the big guns of big events’ by the magazine.

Along with the trust of clients, and experience across six industries and seven key disciplines, the continued expansion of multi-platform events helped elevate Broadstreet on the 2011 list. Broadstreet and ESPN share a multi-year relationship which has been fostered by continuous innovation. That drive led to executing a robust Twitter strategy for the program.

Social media and event measurement tools have created the ability to deliver effective events for clients who turn to Broadstreet with their most important communication challenges.

Lisa Hurley, Chief Editor of Special Events Magazine, called the Broadstreet production of the ESPN Upfront program, “always inventive, always on target.”

For more information on the award and a full list of companies honored, click here

Recently, I stood on moving pieces of reflective metal and had my perception of the world challenged. No, no pills, or other shenanigans were involved, I was standing on a piece of art known as Soil, one of many exhibits at The Creators Project, a superb travelling festival run in partnership with Intel and Vice.

As people walk along Soil the reflective metal moves, changing the interplay of shadow and light. I found myself trying to locate my shadow and when I finally did it would just as quickly disappear, only to show up moments later someplace else. The same was true for everyone walking along Soil, our shadowy images dancing along the wall like apparitions in some bizarre staccato waltz.

It’s a strange thrill to temporarily lose your shadow and sense of self as an anchor. In these tiny moments our minds are challenged to break away from preconceived rules and accept new possibilities.

This is what we do for our clients and ourselves every day at Broadstreet. We don’t necessarily strive to make our audience’s shadows move to different places; however, we always try to find new ways to challenge people to think differently. Whether it’s a pharmaceutical launch, a brand experience or an ad campaign, if we can ignite new insights we know we are delivering an exceptional experience for our clients and their audiences.

Insights have the power to change our thinking, and new ways of thinking has the power to change our behavior, and, most importantly, new behaviors lead to new results. What new insights are you trying to ignite in your audience? Are you providing the fertile soil in which these insights can grow?

I made it.

I’m leading my first major meeting at Broadstreet.

As I wrap up my introduction to an audience that included creative directors, production members and our CFO, the head of production tosses out the seemingly casual question, “how do we gain points?”

I froze. Here I was, reigning commissioner of the first-ever Broadstreet fantasy football league, and I forgot to share the basics of fantasy football with everyone.

We didn’t have a league of experts, but I didn’t think we would have to start at the most basic square one of all square ones. This wasn’t a ‘one last quick clarification point’ type of question; this was a should-have-been-asked-two-weeks-ago, ‘I realized I really need to learn what’s going on’ type of question.

The draft was schedule for 90 minutes but I quickly realized this wasn’t going to be the case.  No, an hour and a half would get us to the point when someone drafts the first Cincinnati Bengal.

I began the evening wishing I hadn’t spent so much on alcohol; the ending of the night saw me scouring the fridge for anything that could ferment in a matter of minutes.

I became the worst subject matter expert to work with. I assumed the knowledge of my team, and didn’t follow through with cohesive communication.

Whose responsibility was it to ensure everyone understood the basics of fantasy football? Was it their job to ask me questions or was it up to me to provide the answers they might need? The answer is obvious – I created the league and facilitated all communication. Anticipation is part of being a good communicator – in any scenario.

How many times have you been involved in a meeting, a product launch, or a session with the R&D team where someone is unprepared?

Did the parties involved receive proper pre-work? Did you follow up on their pre-work?

Have you reached out to key co-workers to get a feeling of their team’s preparation?

Are the attendees reviewing at the event or learning at the event?

These questions apply to any type of communication be it fantasy football draft or major pharmaceutical launch. You can’t expect everyone is going to be responsive or proactive in their preparation. Nor is it their fault for not learning if they haven’t been taught. How will your attendees know what to review at a meeting if they’re uncertain about everything they need to know?

Fortunately, at the end of the draft, everyone had the, ‘now I get it,’ look on their faces. Having gained insights this season I’m confident next year will certainly go smoother, quicker and everyone will have better teams.

Of course, if that happens, my team may not be able to have the same 2-0 start it had this year. The perils of an even playing field…

100-foot tall marshmallow men, gilled monsters from the Amazon, mogwai, and strong-jawed pulp heroes – just a few of my counterparts when I see a midnight movie at Landmark Sunshine Cinema. Built in 1898, it was formerly the Houston Hippodrome motion picture theatre and a Yiddish vaudeville house. Now restored with stadium seating, showing modern indie and vintage classic alike, be ready for some popcorn and excitement.
But when my nostalgic yearning for an old movie hijacks the work week, I anxiously await Friday night’s midnight showing of the classics you will never see again illuminate the silver screen-from Ghostbusters to Creature from the Black Lagoon, Gremlins to Indiana Jones. It’s a rarity to relive the classics on a big screen, and if you’re lucky, the audience-usually dressed like their favorite characters-will mimic their favorite lines in the movie. If you’re luckier, they will fall asleep halfway through the film, seeming as through you have the theater all to yourself-something that doesn’t often happen in New York City.



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SUE ANDERSON, Art Director, has over 15 years experience in visual design for corporate meetings and events, specializing in high-end presentations, video, print and interactive work. Before joining Broadstreet, Sue worked as an Art Director at MJM, managing a dedicated team of artists and animators for their Learning and Performance Development department, generating print pieces, presentations, videos and animations for major pharmaceutical companies. She also served as Creative Director at VCG, a subsidiary of Grey Advertising, focusing on investor relations, producing over 200 IPO roadshows for clients such as Martha Stewart Omnimedia, Polo Ralph Lauren, Charter Communications and Delphi. 

Sue’s Broadstreet clients run the gamut from pharma to fashion, including Pfizer, Revlon, Vornado, Comcast, BMS, Scripps, Time Warner and Diageo.  She holds a  B.F.A. in Graphic Design from SUNY Purchase.

Marketers spend billions of dollars every year to create unforgettable moments that make indelible impressions in consumer’s minds.

Create enough of those prime impressions and your brand becomes top of mind.

Marketing Nirvana is the day your brand becomes a verb. It’s a copyright lawyer’s nightmare but to a marketer it’s a job well done.

“Fedex that package.”

“Google it.”

“Hoover the carpet.”

…all great brands that have created experiences so exceptional that they not only become the leaders in their category, they define the key action of their category.

Experiences can be exceptionally bad and fortunately, for some brands, they have not become verbs based on those bad experiences.

Creating exceptional experiences is neither easy nor guaranteed. You always know when you’ve produced or experienced one. There’s magic in the air during the meeting or event that lingers well beyond the moment.

The result can be smiles or tears or people wanting to recapture the moment with others whom they just shared it with.

At the shop, we call it the “cell phone moment.” We work really hard at creating conditions for it to happen and a lot of the time it does. People walking out of a meeting or an event on the cell phone saying, “You won’t believe what I just…saw, heard, did…experienced.”

That’s the experience we like to have.

Exceptional experiences are defined differently for each client and each industry. In the finance where certainty is the ultimate desire, flawless execution is the exceptional experience. In the consumer industry it’s the light in which the brand is cast. If the light shines brighter and the brand is elevated, that’s an exceptional experience. In the Media and Entertainment world of Ad Sales, if it differentiates the brand and sales increase, that is an exceptional experience.

For attendees, exceptional experiences are defined differently and are usually based in the emotional side of the brain.

Steve Diller, Nathan Shedroff and Darrel Rhea recently authored a book called Making Meaning: How Successful Business Deliver Meaningful Customer Experiences. In it, they deconstruct human experiences to help identify the opportunities for meaning. They also reveal fifteen global meanings people from around the world feel strongly about and suggest designing brand experiences around one or more of these meanings creates a greater opportunity to form create an emotional bond between their brand and the consumer.

Most of the fifteen meanings they define, appeal to purpose. Why we are here on the earth. It’s powerful stuff and when an audience is witness to it, the results can have a huge impact in the consumer’s perception and their emotional attachment to the brand.

We tried to share this notion in a short video we created over the summer. Click here to experience it.

Making the most of your search engine optimization efforts begins with intelligence; audience intelligence. Knowing who your audience is, what they want and how they talk about what they are looking for should be the first step in any SEO campaign. Audience intelligence helps you to select the keyword phrases to target and the content to develop so that you increase your search engine rankings and make the most of them.