Spreading Joy to Wounded Warriors, their Families, and Veterans…via Fisher House

Good afternoon, all:

Last Friday, 12/9, Rich Breen and I had the opportunity to make a personal delivery of over 500 DVDs – collected by Summit Employees – to the Fisher House DC VA Medical Center location.

You’ll recall that all six Summit locations collected new and used DVDs as part of our “Reel Soldiers” campaign back in early 2010.  A total of 1,408 (Wow!) were collected and shipped to Crystal City. 

The intent was to then deliver them to Army Wounded Warrior/Warrior Transition Commands around the country.  However, given various Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) challenges, changes in Army personnel, and other logistical concerns, we held on to the DVDs until 2011 and formulated a wider distribution plan.

Specifically, since the National Fisher House Foundation Headquarters is right here in Rockville, MD, we decided to approach them about accepting some of our DVDs at their multiple nation-wide locations.  We would then supplement the Fisher House activity with a shipment to the large Warrior Transition Units at the newly re-located Walter Reed and/or Ft. Belvoir facilities.

Fisher House confirmed that they had nine out-of-state houses in need of DVDs.  Thus far, we have shipped cases to: Houston, Albany (NY), Tampa, Bay Pines (FL), Augusta (GA), Honolulu, Travis AFB (CA), Ft. Hood, and Seattle.  That’s a total of 576 DVDs!

Then, the Foundation mentioned that they had a brand new House in DC; it just opened in September of this year.

In the words of the DC House Manager, Master Sergeant (Ret.) Kenneth Merritt, “Summit would be like angels to us!  We have new TVs and DVD-players in all 20 of our rooms plus our main Den area.  Yet, our residents are asking why we don’t have any DVDs they can watch?  I’ll take whatever you can send us.  Summit will actually be starting our own Video Library!”

So, on December 9^th, we presented 512 DVDs to the DC Fisher House.   A link to the formal letter from Summit, plus three photos from the afternoon, are enclosed for your enjoyment. 

A sincere “Well-Done!” to all of Summit!

Michael R. Nadonley

Program Manager

Summit Government Solutions Group 

Arlington, Virginia 22202

December 9 FINAL Signed FH Letter (120511)

COL (Ret.) Rich Breen presents Summit Letter to DC Fisher House Manager, MSG (Ret.) Kenneth Merritt

Rich Breen, Kenneth Merritt, Michael Nadonley

512 donated DVDs...just in time for the Holidays!

Michael R. Nadonley

Program Manager

Summit Government Solutions Group

 2011 Crystal Drive, Suite 750

Arlington, Virginia 22202

Phone: 571-483-2433

Fax: 571-483-2439

2012 Color of the Year

Apparently Pantone unveils an annual Color of the Year. To keep us current with the trends, here is what Pantone says:

The 2012 Color of the Year is Tangerine Tango:
http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/category.aspx?ca=88

2011 Honeysuckle – surprisingly a pink:
http://www.pantone.com/pages/Pantone/Pantone.aspx?pg=20821&ca=4

2010 Turquoise:
http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/pantone.aspx?pg=20706&ca=10

2009 Mimosa:
http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/pantone.aspx?pg=20634&ca=10

2008 Blue Iris
http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/pantone.aspx?pg=20540&ca=10

Isn’t it good to be in the know?!

An introduction to QRCs

Read through this entire post and win a prize.  Shameless.  I know.

QRCs are popping up everywhere.  To make sure you are not left behind, this blog is designed to work as an introduction to what they are and how they work.  AND, to make sure you read this whole blog – I have a bribe.  So what is a QRC?  QRC stands for Quick Read Code.  You’ve seen them.  They are almost everywhere now.  You just need to know what to look for.  For those that don’t know, they are about the size of a stamp and they look like this:

Now that you know what they look like.  Do you know what they do?   Basically a QRC is a link.  A link that when scanned with a smartphone (like taking a picture of it) will link/reveal a message.  That message could be a phone number, contact info, or a link to a www-website.  If it is the latter, your smart phone is smart enough to take you to that website.  That is where the fun starts.  More on that later… Remember the bribe?

 “How do I scan them”, you ask? Learn by doing, I say!  First you need a smart phone with a camera.  Second you need to download a QRC app.  If you don’t have an app please download one now.  It is easy and they are free.  Go to your App Store or to www.scan.mobi  on your phone’s web brower.  I use an AT&T version on my iPhone.  Next, launch the app and take a picture/scan of the above QRC.  What does it say?

If you were abile to scan the above QRC, and read the message, welcome to the digital world!  Using a QRC is that simple.  As I stated in the beging this is just an introductory.  I will make another post taylored to using a QRC in a maketing environment.

Now you made it to the end.  Here is the bribe.

Summit’s halls have been DECKED!

The holiday decorations are out and it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here. I love it! It’s amazing how much a tree and some lights can perk up my mood. A BIG thank you to Caitlin and Megan for transforming the office into Santa’s Workshop.

You can check out photos on the Summit Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.288620327848995.71688.200917533285942&type=1

Are you part of the SHIFT?

Making the mobile shift was the topic of a recent webinar I sat in on.  And it got me thinking…

Question; how many mobile phones were shipped globally in 2011?  Answer; 478 million.  And can you guess how many are expected to ship globally by 2015?  Over 1.03 billion.  Yes that is with a “B”.

For many Americans the phone has been a 3rd screen device.  Your TV is the first and your computer is the second.  The global explosion of smart phones means many countries are skipping the PC and going straight into mobile internet.  Think about it.  How many times are you looking at your phone during the day?  Is your phone your 1st screen?  Are you making the shift? 

Social networking is growing everywhere.  According to Ad Age in certain markets, such as Indonesia and Brazil, consumers are skipping traditional communication tools, such as email and going directly into Facebook, Orkut and Twitter. 

Come to think of it, I have even used Facebook as my search tool.  I found what I was looking for, a race car team in this case, and I “LIKED” them.  To then bring it full circle, the race team posted on Facebook that they were having a sale on some race clothing.  I bought a sweatshirt.  I guess I made the shift.

 In fact, the line between online and offline shopping and buying behavior is blurring.  You may not be buying online yet, but you most likely have done some research online.  That online research influenced your buying behavior.  According to Ad Age, major marketers are banking on online research influencing your purchase.  Online and Mobile ad spends on banners, social searches, and other digital media are expected to double by 2014. 

The webinar went into great depth about how mobile will be the new way to communicate to people.  There is some really good info that I can pass on if you are interested. Let me leave you with this…

How is mobile making you shift?  Are kids making you text more?  Are you searching for a restaurant with your phone, not the phone book?  How are you shifting?

Foursquare: Someone Doesn’t Get It. Is It Me, Or Is It Businesses?

Someone is missing the point of Foursquare and I don’t think it’s me. (I don’t mean to brag, but I am the Mayor of three places, including Summit Marketing, St. Louis.) Please correct me if I’ve got it all wrong. If I haven’t been using the app properly then, by all means, let me know so that others can learn from my silly mistakes.

Before you read any more, I must disclose something that you may find hard to believe. I am not a socialite. I don’t hit all the trendy spots in town and ‘Check In’ to announce my presence to all my online friends. I don’t use Foursquare as a tool to find out where all my friends are hanging. I have one friend on Foursquare and she’s my wife. (Gotta keep tabs on her somehow :>)
So maybe that’s why I’m not seeing any benefit to Foursquare. Does the number of friends you have influence how many or what kind of offers you get? Nope. At least I didn’t find any mention of that when I read about using specials within Foursquare’s merchant section. http://support.foursquare.com/entries/481480-what-are-foursquare-specials

So unless I’m missing something, the businesses around here are definitely missing something. They’re missing out on my loyalty.

For the past two months I’ve been using Foursquare to check in at the different businesses I visit. I have yet to receive or unlock a special that has benefited me. Not even a Newbie special or a special when I became Mayor.

I visit some places, like grocery stores, 1-3 times a week. (Don’t I live an exciting life?) I think grocery stores provide a great example for our discussion here. A couple miles from my home, two competing grocery stores (Dierberg’s and Schnuck’s) are located across the street from each other. I drive past them every day so they’re both equally convenient. Here’s the thing…I’m not loyal to either store. Some days I go to Schnuck’s, some days I go to Dierberg’s. I don’t have any rhyme or reason for that. Over the past two months I’ve checked in at Schnuck’s 9 times and Dierberg’s 7 times. And I have absolutely nothing to show for it. OK, every once in a while I get a nifty little badge icon and a congratulatory message on my phone from the nice folks at Foursquare, but not one thing from the actual store where I’m checking in.

All it would take is for one of the stores to give me a valuable special and they would get the lion’s share of my business. Now I don’t expect them to turn my visit into that awesome old game show, Supermarket Sweep, but $5 off a purchase of $50 would be cool.

Giving me a simple offer like that would engage me and allow me to interact with their brand on my phone. More important, it would make me want to continue to check in at their store to see what other specials I could unlock. The more specials I would unlock, the more connected to the brand I would become.

In a way, a check in is like a consumer asking a business for some love. When check in after check in gets ignored, it’s like the business’ way of rejecting their customers. One can only take so much rejection before moving on.

I can see the potential value Foursquare offers to businesses and consumers. But until businesses “get it”, I don’t see how Foursquare will survive. The potential will go unfulfilled. If there’s nothing in it for me, then why should I care?

So do I have this all wrong or do you agree with me? What are your experiences with Foursquare? Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading.
-Kevin

1 Super Cool Smartphone Capability All Sports Fans Should Know

So yesterday I broke down and finally purchased a new cell phone.  It’s one of those new, cool phones that has endless capabilities and I will likely only be aware of the mere basics of what this device can actually do.  (I tell myself it is not a sign of my age.)  As I was making small talk with the Gen Y sales rep as my phone information was transferring from the old phone to the new, he shared with me 1 Super Cool capability that all of you sports fans would LOVE to know…

Turns out my phone has an HDMI plug, next to the USB plug charger.  I merely thought hey I can plug my phone directly into my TV and view my photos/videos, etc.  Well Gen Y sales guy told me you can do more than that.  So there’s a website: http://www.firstrowsports.eu/ that provides live streams of all things sports.  You can pull up this site on your phone, then connect it to your TV with an HDMI cable and wa-la…you can cancel that NFL cable sports package you have and stream any game you want directly from your phone to TV for free.  Apparently Gen Y sales guy does this to his big screen TV and has all of his other Gen Y friends over for the games.  So while the thought of me purchasing a cable sports package has never crossed my mind, I knew just about everyone of my friends’ husbands would love to know this little nugget.

* Also, something else I learned…apparently Verizon did something illegal in their phone contracts, etc. and as a result, any Verizon customer can break their contract with NO penalties or fees right now.  This is only good for 60-days which started sometime in July.

** And, if you go to Sprint and talk with a nice Gen Y sales guy, he can get you a “company discount” of 10% – even though Summit is not in their database of companies that get the discount.

After yesterday, I have a new found respect for Gen Y.

Too Cool Not To Share

Last night I read a fun article on FastCompany.com about Rube Goldberg’s machines. The article had some great ads, viral videos and music videos inspired by Rube. Enjoy!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYabfifhEPE?rel=0&w=425&h=349]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKpxd8hzOcQ?rel=0&w=560&h=349]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w?rel=0&w=560&h=349]

My personal favorite example of a Goldberg inspired scene can be found in one of the greatest movies ever made.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kr_z37TgQO4?rel=0&w=560&h=349]

Find the complete article and more videos here (Happy Friday!):
http://www.fastcompany.com/1768307/rise-of-the-machines-a-rube-goldberg-roundup

update: comma drama.

it seems Oxford University did not intend to startle the whole world by dropping their famed and apparently beloved comma. They only meant to drop it for internal use in the PR department.

oh, rats.

I still think this is a sign that the end is near.

source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011/06/30/137525211/going-going-and-gone-no-the-oxford-comma-is-safe-for-now?sc=fb&cc=fp

oxford comma drama.

I just found out something so exciting…i couldn’t wait to get on the Summit Blog and tell everyone in the company!!!

Then I realized how few people probably care nearly as much as I do.

Then I realized that this issue has touched many lives, and it’s worth mentioning.

OXFORD UNIVERSITY HAS OFFICIALLY DROPPED THE OXFORD COMMA.

source: http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/oxford-comma-dropped-by-university-of-oxford_b33357

I abhor the Oxford comma.  I know many of you, and even a client or two, who still worship it.

Hey, I am just excited that the world even cares about geeky copywriting issues anymore.

Goodbye: Red, white, and blue.
Hello: Red, white and blue.

thanks for putting up with my enthusiasm over this issue.