BroadBased Senior Art Director Robert Hedges worked with the City of Jacksonville’s Office of Special Events to develop promotional materials and a guide book for Jacksonville’s 20th Annual World of Nations Celebration. The event, to be held May 3 to May 6 at Jacksonville’s Metropolitan Park, celebrates the rich cultural traditions and unique heritage of people from around the world.

Visit www.MakeASceneDowntown.com for more information.

While you certainly desire that everyone on your e-newsletter list would open and read it, that’s just not going to happen. But before your CEO complains to you about low open rates, arm yourself with some industry facts.

According to a July 2011 Email Marketing Metrics Report from MailerMailer.com:

• Once your email campaign has been sent, you can expect open rates to peak within the first two hours, followed by a sloping decline for the next 46 hours.
• Transportation (17.6%), Non-Profit (15.2%) and Consulting (14.9%) enjoyed top performing open rates in 2010 while Media (8%), Restaurant (8%) and Medical (7.1%) had the lowest email open rates.
• While it’s reported that most people tend to open email between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m., at BroadBased, we send ours out at 5 a.m. and regularly receive 100 views by the time of our peak at 8 a.m. (Our open rate hovers at about 35%.)
• Data collected from mailermailer.com customers shows that smaller email list sizes ranging from 25-499 or 500-999 recipients perform better than lists containing 1,000 or more addresses.
• Declining open rates can be attributed somewhat to retail email volume per subscriber increasing to 61% overall, with the most significant jump in 2010 when volume increased by 16%.

According to a February blog post by The National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL), commercial printing industry sales are expected to begin growing this year for the first time since 2007. While the increase is only expected to be 1%-3%, and the group is very cautious about making further projections, this is indeed good news for an industry that has been pretty soundly beat up for the last few years.

At BroadBased, we’ve seen a 17% increase in print design YTD. We think, perhaps, after a few years entrenched in digital media (websites, apps, social media) that marketers have returned to their roots and are polishing up print materials in 2012.

While the BROADcast is distributed only once a month, we’re spreading the news daily on top trends and hot topics on Facebook and Twitter. For regular doses of marcom, design and PR news, follow us on Twitter at @BroadBased, and “like” us on Facebook!

Just in case you’ve been living in a cave for the last month, you should know that Facebook is automatically updating all existing business pages to the new Timeline format on March 30. If you have not yet prepared, there are still a few days left before the big switch for our social media Broads to give you a hand and teach you the ropes!

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) has updated its definition of public relations for the first time since 1982. PR has come a long way in the last 30 years, from roots of press agentry and publicity, to today’s more modern focus on engagement and relationship building. As such, PRSA launched a crowd-sourcing campaign that resulted in 1,447 public votes in February, 2012, and produced the following new, modern definition:

“Public Relations: a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.”

The BroadBased PR team whole-heartedly agrees with this new definition and has long held that PR is all about building relationships – relationships that can continue to flourish even after the PR consultant budget is exhausted. “The most savvy of our clients insist on having personal relationships with the media, project partners, sponsors and other key stakeholders,” said BroadBased’s Maria Coppola, APR, who is president of the Florida Public Relations Association’s Jacksonville Chapter. “We’ve always promoted PR campaigns as efforts to expand an organization’s circle.”

Read the full article here.

BroadBased is proud to have been chosen by Flagler College to help the college promote an important milestone in the storied history of its St. Augustine campus. In 2013, Flagler will celebrate the 125-year anniversary of the opening of the Hotel Ponce de Leon, a national historic landmark. The hotel, built by Henry Flagler in 1888, today serves as the centerpiece of the College, housing its executive offices, cafeteria and women’s dormitories. BroadBased will help Flagler mark this historic occasion by executing strategic marketing, communications, PR and media relations projects.

Flagler College is a private, four-year college, offering baccalaureate programs in 25 majors and 32 minors to an enrollment of 2,500 students.

When BroadBased CEO Jan Korb’s stepmother, Gail, passed away in December, she left behind nine beloved housecats — and one of the most daunting marketing challenges of Korb’s career. A family member immediately adopted two of the precocious kitties, but the remaining seven cats also needed new homes, giving Korb a purrfect opportunity to demonstrate the effectiveness of a well-designed integrated marketing strategy.

Through blogging, social media, printed flyers and word of mouth, the task of finding homes for the cats was accomplished in about eight weeks. “The first thing I did was set up a blog titled Gail’s Kitties,” said Korb. “The blog talked about Miss Gail and featured photos and bios of each of the cats. This was the centerpiece of the marketing effort to which we drove all traffic.” Social media, including Facebook and Twitter posts by Korb and her family directed traffic to the blog, where it was re-shared. Flyers posted in workplaces and pet supply stores also directed traffic to the blog.

“We were amazed that we accomplished our goal in under three months,” Korb said. “Two of the older cats are on medication and we weren’t sure they were adoptable, but they found loving homes.” While the blog and social media definitely helped spread the word, don’t underestimate the power of traditional advertising, Korb said. Four of the cats found homes via traditional flyers placed in pet stores and workplaces. “This is a lesson that correlates to any marketing effort,” Korb said. “Integrated plans using a variety of outreaches touch the most people.”

In the end the cats traveled far and wide to find their new homes. Gandolph currently resides in Jacksonville, Frodo in southern Alabama and Beethoven went to Peachtree City, Ga. Socrates, Hamlet, Sabrina and Pepper remain in the Carrolton, Ga. area.

In March, BroadBased held an educational seminar with BusinessWire to show off all the latest benefits of the company’s mobile, SEO, online and social media technologies. BusinessWire, a Berkshire Hathaway Company, gave our clients and partners an in-depth education on writing press releases targeted for all the platforms. Marketing directors love the awesome analytics that BW offers – and PR pros love the amount of online buzz that BusinessWire gives our business-focused clients.

Would you like an invitation to our next educational seminar? Email Maria Coppola, APR at maria@bbased.com and we’ll put you on the list! (Psst: it’s free!)

A January study by eMarketer.com predicts that online marketing will post a 20% growth in 2012, surpassing gross print ad spending for the first time. The study goes on to state that the growth of TV advertising will remain relatively untouched by online spending.