Perry & Banks Marketing, Public Relations, Web, Inbound, Outbound, Online, Offline

That's what we've jokingly called the full-blown Perry & Banks website, which years later, has yet to beam up. We could give you all of the usual excuses: "no time," "clients come first," "too big," etc. But the truth is, things in our world are changing so fast, by the time we have something written and designed (and we've been through umpteen drafts at this point), the message is already kinda outdated. Looking at other traditional agency websites out there, we know they're facing the same thing.

Enter this new site and blog, our simple and somewhat elegant (if we don't say so ourselves) solution to the dilemma. We see it as a chance to accomplish a lot more than a traditional agency site could ever do. Maybe that's why smart, savvy forward-thinking agencies like Hill-Holiday, Mullen and Off Madison Avenue have scrapped their traditional website and put up a dynamic, less formal, more useful online publishing system in its place.

Sure, ours has an "about us" page, we'll tell you about how we create big wins for our clients, and we'll show off some great work. But we'll also have fresh content all the time, content that shares our knowledge and links you to the latest ideas on marketing, design, communications, website development, new media, pr and social media.

Our intention is to make this a place where all of us at PB can have a voice and express it in exactly the way we want. And where you can join the conversation, interact with us, and help us build a community of like-minded colleagues and business partners.

Look, it may not be a mothership, but the countdown is definitely over and we're ready to blast off!

With the proliferation of marketing tools available today that enable us to create and deliver content, the gap between marketing competence and the marketer seems to be widening. We are given the impression that we can move marketing mountains, “if only we had the latest technology tools and platforms.”

It’s not about the tools. It’s about the team and its use of process, strategy, messaging, and understanding your audience.

So I’m making a pitch for a little common sense, some good, straightforward process engineering, and the use of visual and quite cost effective tools: pictures and "Sandwich Diagrams."

Now my colleagues felt the need to berate me recently (in jest of course, but repeatedly) for my incessant need to leap to the white board and sketch my insights on customer segments, customer needs and a plethora of other marketing campaign issues. As for the reason I feel somewhat berated? Indelicately delivered to my email box was the illustration you see above!

Now this “sandwich diagram” as it has been aptly coined around the office seeks to deliver clarity regarding the selection of ingredients for said sandwich, the nature of those ingredients, condiment selection, knife utilization (yeah, I used to manage engineers in another life), how the bread might be cut, and the surface on which the sandwich would be placed (paper, ceramic or both). I’m still unsure of the culprit, and ultimate perpetrator of this illustration.

And just to be clear for all the creative types, artists and aspiring Dilbert protégés in the company, I just want to let you know – you missed engineering 101 and there are errors and inconsistencies in your mock flow chart!

Seriously though. What does the Sandwich Diagram have to do with marketing? It’s really at the root of what we do, the development of killer ideas. It’s used at companies that are replete with success and best practices.

• For us visual learners, pictures really help with context. Learning styles have also been extensively studied, and there are some very interesting models worth taking a look at; see www.businessballs.com. An in depth look at these models can be a great start in developing high performance teams.


• When you are evaluating marketing programs or even management or process, flow charts quickly highlight poor process, excess cost and programs that need change. They also help to develop highly efficient and effective processes within a marketing campaign or organization.


• And mind maps can be used to develop business strategies, product development ideas, marketing campaigns, and analyze potential solutions, like the one below from www.mindtools.com.

We should also consider the studies that have been broadly circulated, asserting that we recall:

• 10% of what we read


• 20% of what we hear


• 30% of what we see


• 50% of what we hear and see


• 70% of what we say


• 90% of what we both say and do

In the spirit of full disclosure, this is a rant. Not my rant against the bank teller who dented my car with the drive-up tray or UPS for making it almost impossible for people that work to get a package that was sent to their house. This is about my refusal to use Twitter, Yammer, and every other undeveloped, soon-to-be-released communications tool designed to capture the essence of me in the fewest number of characters.

I have issues around privacy, interpersonal communication, isolation, and ego, but let’s start with what I understand some of the benefits of Twitter are:


The ability to “follow” friends.
This would be great in theory if I felt that everyone I “knew” really needed to know what I’m doing. What about people that just like to do something on their own? Some people like to ride motorcycles in a group and have built a great culture around motorcycle rides. But that culture doesn’t translate into everything. If you have a RAV4 and are going out for milk at the 7-11 – would you really want all the other RAV4 owners that need milk to come with you?

A window into the world of celebrity.
I read in SI that Stewart Cink, the PGA pro, has a very large and growing number of followers. He is apparently an active user and is good about keeping his followers up to date. I like golf. I’d like to play more. I’d even like to have more time to sleep through a match on TV on a Sunday afternoon. I can’t ever imagine a scenario where I would have enough time to read tweets from Stewart Cink.

A way to easily communicate with family.
My extended family consists of great folks from 8 months old to almost 80.  My son, the 8 month old, has his own phone. (It’s the demo model from the phone store with no service or battery; it does have a key pad and he’s getting pretty good at using it to bang on the keys and the cat.) His grandparents have computers but none of them are what you would call frequent or power users. So for me there is neither a common platform that would make sense nor a desire to lose any face time to screen time. That would be on top of the time that Facebook can take out of your life.

Getting business tips and ideas.
Now I’m a bit more interested. I have a friend, however, that’s a wiz and he sends things that I might find interesting to my email. For me, maybe Twitter is like boating – I’m better off having a friend with a boat and a colleague on Twitter. We’ve talked about this a bunch and I’m the first one to admit that for him it’s a great business tool, distraction, and social activity.

What I’m saying is that I need more people to acknowledge that it’s not for everyone. It’s not also for every business.

I’m solidly in favor of short, to the point, communication in any form. When it comes to meaningful content – bring it on. I’m just not buying the need for technology to shorten the form and push it out to thousands of followers.

Maybe when it’s all said and done I have a real fear of gathering few or no followers.