High Road Communications

Yesterday, my colleague Martin Hofmann and I had the opportunity to speak at the Canadian Marketing Association conference. The buzz at the conference: making web marketing & online communications effective. Martin and I talked about connecting with customers online through Web 2.0 tools and the keys to doing it right. (If you would like a copy of the deck, e-mail me and I will send it to you). My takeaway is that marketers on the B2C side recognize the need to integrate the Web into their overall marketing plans, while B2B marketers are still dipping their toes in the 2.0 ocean, wondering how to incorporate social networking, videos, and blogs, etc.   

After our talk I was able to stick around and check out Avinash Kaushik. Avinash is a web analytics guy, who writes an excellent blog and just put out a book. (He says the book is based on his “free” blog content, so you could save the $19.99...). Avinash really hit home the message: Web analytics tools now are easier to use than ever before and cost next to nothing. If companies are skipping the step of doing solid analytics work on their online properties, they are choosing to make decisions based on intuition rather than facts. The case studies and data he presented were compelling. The ease with which web marketers can test and then make changes based on the results of those tests means bounce rates can be cut dramatically simply by listening to the what the customer wants.

For the second year in a row High Road has been named one of the Best Workplaces in Canada by the Great Place to Work Institute. I am so proud of our team for continuing to make this one of the best places to work. This team’s passion, dedication and creativity continue to impress me and our clients. Since founding the company 12 years ago, we’ve focused on building the best team in the industry and celebrating the over and above commitment that is made every day through company-wide training programs, national teambuilding events, sabbaticals and High Road celebrations. 

Our High Impact Awards program was acknowledged as a best practice this year. The program is based on staff nominations for outstanding contributions to High Road around our core values of teamwork, respect for the individual, personal passion and commitment, and new business drives the firm. All nominees are highlighted during the monthly national all staff meeting and one is randomly selected to be put in a draw for an all paid weekend get away. What a great way to celebrate going above and beyond for the company and our clients!

Sometimes it isn’t the big gestures that make the difference. The small ones are often more impactful.

Check out what some of our employees think about High Road:

I had an epiphany last year while I was on maternity leave with my second child. When I read that we really had only ten years to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions or face dismal consequences, it suddenly became very clear to me. I realized that if we don’t make this happen - instead of dealing with common preteen calamities like making the soccer team and noticing boys - my children would be contemplating catastrophic climate change.

Putting my family into the equation was enough to finally awaken my environmental consciousness. I’m lucky that I work for a company where I can apply my passion to my core competence. High Road has committed to being carbon neutral by the end of 2008. We’re already well on our way with the company setting a target to reduce paper usage by at least 30 per cent, purchasing carbon credits to offset flight travel and implementing a Green IT Makeover.

High Road is also helping burgeoning clean technology companies get the word out about new ways to provide renewable energy. This fledgling industry will only grow when clean technology companies are supported by government at all levels. There are strong footholds being established with agencies like Sustainable Development Technology Canada doling out a billion dollars in cash and repayable loans to companies who develop viable pollution-reducing technologies and bio-fuels. It’s a good step in the right direction because the US and Canada rank first and third with the highest carbon emissions per person on the globe. I think that living on our beautiful planet is a privilege and we have an obligation to give back.

Help North America clean up its act. Be the change.

Few relationships are under such scrutiny as those between bloggers and PR folks.

We’ve seen lots of posts + stories about potential conflicts of interest when PR people approach bloggers with free product for review or pay for bloggers to attend company events. The anti-corp-marketing people raise cautionary flags that companies are bribing bloggers into writing something they wouldn’t have otherwise written. PR teams will quickly shoot back, “we are getting in front of bloggers who naturally have an interest in said product/story and we are simply asking for their honest opinion, nothing more, nothing less.”

This is all very similar to how deal we with traditional media. The twist comes when you consider the impact of programs like this which pay bloggers “bonus” money for number of times their stories are read. This type of program is becoming more common and I include the Gawker example because it is such a complete description of the business model.

A popular PR tool is the “negotiated exclusive” which attempts to barter more favorable placement of stories in exchange for giving the reporter the story first. The blogging for dollars bonus money programs ratchet the concept up even further by bringing PR people + bloggers together with a mutual goal: more eyeballs reading the content. An exclusive on a hot new product or breaking news story has always been able to bring the writer fame but in the Web 2.0 world it brings dollars. PR people who get this model working for them also stand to win.

What do you think ?