Congratulations Sandstorm! We submitted an inspirational quote for the 2011 Woman’s Advantage Calendar and from over 5,000 submissions, our marketing firm’s quote (and internal company philosophy) was chosen.Woo hoo!

Our inspirational quote will appear on our own calendar page (September 22) with our company name and  url. What a great way to increase our visibility and get a little free publicity. I love PR and marketing, and I love to win. This is such an honor. And a fun way to share a little insight about our marketing firm and the people who work here.

So you might be wondering, what was our winning quote and inspiration: “To become an exceptional leader, take the time to help others achieve their dreams” The extra special part – I found out today, on my birthday.

Zak recently emailed me an article about why bronze medalists are happier than those who win silver, with a small note that read “reminded me of you”. I didn’t even have to read the article to know what he meant. I hate the B+, the second place, the silver, the most defeating words from a potential client, “We really struggled with this decision, the two companies we narrowed down to were so great…” you know the rest. You get the B+, the 89%, the race through your head if there was anything else you could have done, had a stronger pitch, shown more expertise, presented a more cohesive plan, a better demo, etc.

For years we have been working on going for the gold, striving to make that emotional connection, and helping our clients do the same. Strategic marketing and strong branding can’t necessarily help silver medalists, but it can help companies who are tired of hearing from their sales team that a competitor just won their business, again. With strong positioning, a consistent brand, and a strategic message, marketing can bring a brand to life, clearly demonstrate added value, and in the end, be that one “gut” feeling that makes your company win the gold (over and over again). Ready to start training for that gold medal?

The Web Marketing Association has honored us with the 2009 WebAward For Outstanding Achievement in Web Development and Design for National Association of Realtors’ Green REsource Council web site. The Green REsource Council was founded to make the knowledge of green real estate practices available to everyone and is the only environmental real estate designation addressing multiple specialties for agents and property managers.

We are very proud to be recognized for our green design work, and continue to strive to build intuitive online user experiences.

Oh, powerpoint presentations can be so painful. And just for the record, they can be just as painful if not more so for us designers as well. We want to build a brand experience, convey a message, and shout to the audience that we are not boring!

So I heard a presentation about how people learn: kinesthetic learning, auditory learning and visual learning. (I am a kinesthetic and visual learner – go figure). While in the presentation, it dawned on me that powerpoint fails for most of us because it relies so heavily on an auditory learning style, and some ridiculous low percentage of people are auditory learners.

Ok. I admit it. I am stalling today. I have three proposals to write and I am blogging instead. I tell myself that blogging is marketing and it’s part of our social media and SEO strategy so it’s just as important, but I know in my gut that I should be writing those proposals. I should be grateful that I have proposals to write (and they are really cool ones from facebook application ideas to some web site interfaces utilizing our user-centered methodology) but I am struggling to actually write them. So how does one find inspiration in writing proposals? I already ate my bag of skittles.

How much effort goes into a brand name? Sometimes millions of dollars and hours of user research and analysis. Sometimes it’s a random employee who comes up with the idea through a contest (think Accenture – accent on the future). We do a lot of naming for our clients whether it be for a new initiative, a new product, a renaming of a company, an internal program, and there really is no one way to go about it. From a brainstorm to all the legal intellectual property searches, I wonder how many hours really went into some of the most well known names out there?

Many people ask me where Sandstorm came from. I should come up with a highly conceptual meaning, but that’s not how it happened. Sandstorm was a nickname of mine from college so I went with it because it was fun yet strong, spontaneous and energetic. Plus my maiden name was very difficult to pronounce, spell and remember. When I started the company in 1998 I had no idea that someday I would have an incredible agency filled with Sandstormers. Still wows me today.

This past weekend was our 3rd annual “Sandstorm Guac-off!” and our guacamole contest results are in.

Congratulations to… ME! (OMG – this is my official first time winning and my staff now thinks I cheated). And here’s why. It’s all about my super secret ingredient where they think I swayed the judges and the user experience. My super secret ingredient I talked about for weeks, and tested up in Lake Geneva about a month ago with friends and family to perfect my recipe. My super secret ingredient that no one was worried about because last year it was dill and I lost miserably. My super secret ingredient was… tequila. (he he he).

The most fun thing about guacamole is that is really does taste so different depending on what you decide to put in. This year’s samples included mayo and sour cream to apples and jalepenos. Zak even brought a dessert guacamole which was my personal favorite (I didn’t vote for myself as I don’t personally like tequila) – he added raspberries and raspberry jam to be eaten with cinnamon crisps. Yum! And Zachary made guacamole for the first time ever.

So for the next year I get to be the “Guacamole Queen at Sandstorm”. A title I am most proud of considering I can’t cook very well to start off with. Not sure what my super secret ingredient will be next year. Better watch out Zak.

We are officially announcing our prediction for the new marketing buzz word for 2010: “intelligence”. Intelligence is going to be the new way of describing a multitude of already existing words including but not limited to: web analytics, overall business experience, experience in a marketplace or segment of the market, market research, data aggregation and reporting, interactive data driven web tools… okay, basically anything that uses data will now be referred to as “intelligence”.

Coming to our web site soon. :)

So I struggle with web awards. Are they more for the creative team, the client, or the ego? Or are they a great way to celebrate innovative design work and share creative uses of technology and social media? The answer is most likely yes to all, but for some reason they still kind of sit funny with me. I am proud when we win, and I know our clients are proud too – but I know inside that I feel more pride when our marketing efforts really help grow our clients’ businesses. That’s my own personal mini award. :)

One company may beg to differ. We beg to write.

I’m talking web site copy for the clients of our marketing and web design firm. We’ll beg, we’ll plead, we’ll keep our fingers crossed – just for the opportunity to write the content. And here is the number one reason why… so we can hit our deadlines.When we meet with a new client and they ask “What do you see that will hold up our deadline?” I’ll respond, start writing your content.

To help with this, we’re starting to put together content templates to help mitigate the random copywriting we get when multiple SME’s write for the same company. Erin Kissane wrote a great blog entry on content templates that goes into detail on how to use them. Thanks Erin!