By Z

With our new BFF, Emerge Sales, moving into a corner office here at New Media, this seems a good time to review the importance of strategic alliances — not only during times of economic crisis, like the Great Recession that rocked our national economy for the better part of two years, but also in times like these, when recovery is a reality and the business savvy are gearing up for better days.

See those logos up there? Each of those companies — Emerge Sales, Trade Show Solution Center, Software Reproduction Technologies and Naz Creative — is a New Media professional ally. And each brings something unique and critically important to the party. While New Media provides these partners with services such as website development, corporate rebranding and Relationship Marketing, the partners provide New Media with access to their valuable skills. The result is a solid team — a corporate bloc, if you will — capable of addressing an expanded range of professional needs.

If our good friend Laura McLeod at Trade Show Solutions Center has customers interested in developing a Social Media network, she refers them to us; if we have clients who need a killer presentation for the big convention, we know whom to call. And so on.

“This is where the future is,” says Michael Kitakis, New Media’s CEO and architect of many of his agency’s strategic alliances. “In today’s economic reality, companies like ours should embrace our ‘vendors’ and turn them into ‘partners.’ It’s just good sense.”

The benefits go far beyond the services allies provide each other; it’s not only about New Media’s advanced talent for web design or Emerge’s unparalleled telemarketing knowledge or Naz Creative’s SEO expertise. As with any sound business practice, these alliances don’t just benefit current clients — they help the member companies drum up new business.

“All of these companies share their databases,” Michael notes. “The idea is to provide existing clients, as well as potential ones, the kind of nourishment that shows them — rather than tells them — the benefits each company can provide.

“If I’m a business owner and I see someone is producing a webinar with an hour’s worth of vital content about trade shows, or search-engine optimization, or the kind of transferable-media services SRT provides, why wouldn’t I listen to that?” Michael adds. “This is all beneficial stuff, and if one webinar doesn’t exactly apply to your particular business, the next one will.”

The corporate quintet is already spinning some intricate webinars. This week, Emerge cofounder and CEO Michael Sperduti web-casted two live webinars for salespersons working the health-care trades from a New Media conference room. And production has already begun on a series of webinars, slated to web-cast live before the end of this year, featuring all five allies discussing the best bets for 21st century marketing and communications.

New Media and its professional pals, meanwhile, are always looking for new allies, with digital signage pros and networking aces being strongly considered. The more, the merrier, according to Michael K.

“As long as a business can provide a new or better service that applies to our world, we’ll consider bringing them in,” New Media’s head honcho says. “This is all about providing the best services for our customers, and for our partners’ customers, and for all the customers out there waiting to be discovered.”

By Z

Nicolock Paving Stones and Retaining Walls came to us at the beginning of 2009 with a relatively simple request: Help us increase sales.

We jumped right in. Nicolock’s a strong Island-based company with a long tradition of excellent craftsmanship and fair dealings – exactly the client you want in your rolodex.

In the spring we produced Nicolock’s 2009 Product Catalog (below), and since a traditional book would never do for such a multidimensional company, Graz went all nutty with his Mac Pro and concocted a 3D catalog – complete with glasses – that brought the stones and walls to life.

We also helped Nicolock plan, promote and polish its 2009 Contractor Convention, a networking and training extravaganza at the Long Island Sheraton in Hauppauge. The event was packed with “Best Practice” instruction, business-building seminars, giveaways and more, and our aggressive advertising campaign helped Nicolock pack the house.

We followed up with Nicolock’s first-ever direct-response television ad, a 60-second spot that ran this summer and generated a “significant response,” according to Mark Fuss, Nicolock’s sales VP. Highlighting the firm’s patented Paver-Shield technology, the ad offered free home-ideas catalogs and design software, Nicolock’s guide to easy financing and a list of qualified Nicolock installers. It also invited viewers to learn more about Nicolock’s lifetime warranty and special installation rebates.

But our Nicolock efforts have hinged mostly on Hardscape Pro, an expansive contractor support program. In lieu of conventional advertising, this program speaks directly to the source – contractors and installers, front-lines types who can really push Nicolock’s wonderful products.

They can be Nicolock’s mini-sales force, the theory goes, the perfect middleman (and woman) between the company and all those customers itching to beautify their homes. Arming them with tons of Nico-knowledge, while supporting their entire business effort, is a win-win: The benefits to Nicolock are obvious, while small, independent contractors thrill at the prospect of larger marketing and support mechanisms.

The contractors don’t only learn how to sell Nicolock products, they learn how to sell themselves – no small thing in a troubled economy. Professional, informative, easy-to-use catalogs. Job-site signs that catch the eye and spread the word. Attractive direct-mail postcards, personalized for local campaigns. Referral programs, credit card processing services and, of course, extensive education on the latest technological advancements and techniques – the list goes on.

Members become part of something bigger, enjoying increased sales potential, enhanced marketability, extended advertising reach and an expanded scope of professional capabilities. And Nicolock is etched as a paving industry cornerstone.

One-hundred-fifty Hardscape Pros (and growing) will tell you it’s working beautifully, a testament to Relationship Marketing done right. And with the support program steaming along, New Media can refocus on more traditional services, developing new web and television campaigns for our Nicolock friends.

To learn more about Nicolock’s products or for information on becoming a Hardscape Pro, check out their site. To learn more about Relationship Marketing … look no further, baby.

By Z

So the lovely Sharon McGovern, marketing director extraordinaire for Nassau Suffolk Lumber & Supply Corp., was gracing the New Media mothership today, and it highlighted an impressive truth: Nassau Suffolk Lumber has had a professional relationship with New Media Marketing, or LKGS Marketing, or Joe Lapiana – the “L” in LKGS – for 22 years now.

Twenty-two years! We’re talking 1987, people … the days of Wrestlemania III, U2’s “Joshua Tree” and Jim Bakker’s defrocking. The year Baby Jessica fell down the well and Prozac debuted and President Reagan suffered several pains in the butt, including Iran-Contra and prostate surgery. The year some poorly drawn cartoon about four-fingered people with banana skin tones debuted on “The Tracy Ullman Show.”

A veritable lifetime, which begs an interesting question: What could possibly keep Sharon and NSL coming back more than two decades later?

“Well,” Sharon said in our conference room, “Michael does buy me a margarita once a month.”

She was joking, of course (“Well, he should.”), but the truth is close by. Twenty-two years later, it’s all about relationships. Sharon remembers Michael, as in New Media honcho Kitakis, in her apartment three days after the birth of her first child, going over ad proofs. She remembers her earliest dealings with Joe Lap, when he was a solo act producing radio commercials out of his home. She remembers when Joe and Michael and the artistic, cyclonic Chris Graziose first joined forces in their tiny Greenlawn office.

“That was their most creative time, I think,” she said. “The three of them had so much energy, not that they don’t now.”

Twenty-two years later, New Media still does radio and TV spots for NSL, and is pumping some 21st-century mojo into the company’s communications via snazzy websites, focused direct-mail services and radical Relationship Marketing efforts like NSL’s new contractor-support program.

“It’s really the full communications package,” Sharon noted. “The ability to bring print and web together. They can really brand a marketing package.”

But for all the branding, all the winning campaigns, all the bells and whistles, it’s the relationship that keeps NSL on the client roster – and keeps Sharon coming back. “Our minds just work well together,” she said.

Michael agreed: “I think if you have a relationship with a client for 22 years, through upturns, downturns, recessions, even through a metamorphosis of companies … there’s something really impressive about that.”

By Z

This just in: Graz is “psyched.”

After a three-hour meeting “not to convince, but to educate” the fine folks at Estelle’s Dressy Dresses about Social Media 101 – or, as he puts it, “manipulative marketing” – New Media C.O.O. Chris Graziose texts New Media Central with this breathless report:

(Editor’s note: It appears Graz hit the Starbucks drive-thru first and guzzled his normal iced grande skinny Hazelnut latte with a quad-shot of espresso … a.k.a. “the friggin’ ridiculous $5.16 cup of coffee,” in GrazSpeak. Not that the steep price stops him from downing two or three a day.)

“I’m psyched! Estelle’s Dressy Dresses in Farmingdale has done it all. From full-page ads to direct mail. When a client comes to you and says ‘I want to be on Facebook and Twitter,’ what do you say? I said, ‘Let’s go’ … and we are. Retained for the implementation, production, launch and maintenance. I’m so excited because the client’s audience is the social-media crowd. I can’t wait to post the results next month. Oh yeah, we’re doing their website as well.”

Graz hits the nail on the head here. Estelle’s audience is the perfect target for New Media’s social-media expertise – using Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn accounts to drive traffic to Estelle’s home page. Sure, any modern business audience would benefit from this next-level networking, but thousands upon thousands of teens and young adults hunting hot fashion trends and tips? Yeah, we’re thinking this might work out.

It’s an ambitious project, but there’s no job too big for Graz and his team. We here at New Media Central just need to get him a caffeine I.V., and maybe one of those wheeled poles to drag around.

By Z

That’s a wrap on the initial run of Nicolock Paving Stones and Retaining Walls’ first-ever direct-response television campaign, and indications are it was a bull’s-eye.

The 60-second spot ran for two weeks this early summer on Long Island cable systems and produced “significant response,” according to Mark Fuss, Nicolock’s vice president of sales and marketing.

The ad, produced by New Media Marketing and Communications Inc., highlighted Nicolock’s patented Paver-Shield technology and offered viewers free home-ideas catalogs and free home-design software, as well as access to Nicolock’s guide to easy financing and a list of qualified Nicolock installers. It also invited viewers to learn more about Nicolock’s lifetime warranty and to take advantage of a special rebate on installations.

(Yes, eagle-eyed viewer, the spot also featured New Media’s very own chief operating officer, Chris Graziose, playing a much-satisfied homeowner in his professional acting debut. To see Brando in action, click here.)

“The commercial was very effective,” Mr. Fuss said. “It conveyed our message clearly and hit all the right notes, and generated a lot of interest among viewers. We’re very happy with the way it played.”

While pleased with the direct-response ad’s success, Nicolock is not resting on its laurels. The Lindenhurst, NY-based company is currently engaged in a summer radio campaign and plans to debut a 30-second version of its TV spot this fall.

No word on whether Graz has signed on for the sequel.

In a bold move for a company whose long standing method of advertising was steeped in traditional paper driven methods such as mailings and newspaper ads, Franklin First Financial Ltd., the well-established mortgage bankers, put New Media Marketing in charge and learned first hand the benefits of Direct Response Television.
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Rolls out new service line to help companies compete in today’s interactive world

Islandia, NY – LKGS Marketing is proud to announce the launching of a new company, New Media Marketing and Communications.
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