| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
Toolboxers descended upon San Antonio's Kirby's Steak House recently to ring in the holidays, share dinner and drinks with the extended Toolbox Studios family, and to participate in an annual white elephant gift exchange. We also marked a milestone — Toolbox designer Steven Gonzalez's fifth year on staff. Huzzah!
Photos courtesy of Kemp and Melanie Davis and Rob Simons
In addition to Toolbox Studios’ excellent showing at the local level back in February, we also recently brought home three 2011 District 10 ADDY® awards for our publication and website design work:
Sales Promotion: Packaging Design
Anti-workbook, Leader Guide and DVD Set
Client: sparkhouse re:form curriculum
Collateral Material: Publication Design
Anti-workbook, Leader Guide and DVD Set
Client: sparkhouse re:form curriculum
Interactive Media: Consumer Website
USAA www.garagebandplayoff.com website
Client: USAA
About the ADDY® Awards
As the world's largest advertising competition, the ADDY® Awards represent the true spirit of creative excellence by recognizing all forms of advertising from media of all types, creative by all sizes and entrants of all levels from anywhere in the world. Annually, over 40,000 entries worldwide compete at the local, regional, and national levels.
Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition managing editor Krishnan Anantharaman, left, and Toolbox Studios creative director Paul Soupiset at the 2011 Association of Educational Publisher’s (AEP) awards gala in Washington, DC.
Read the article here: http://toolboxstudios.com/flash/#/news/2011/82/
On Friday, June 3, Texas Burn Survivor Society (TBSS) hosted the Eleventh Annual Survivors Golf Challenge at Canyon Springs Golf Club in San Antonio. Toolbox Studios has proudly supported TBSS in past years by sponsoring a team at their annual golf tournament. This year, we decided to field our own team instead. Director of operations Jason Sousa, senior production specialist Stacy Thomas and account intern Julia Orrange spent the day golfing for a cause. The Texas Burn Survivor Society has provided 49 years of patient support to assist thousands of burn and thermal injury survivors and their families across the state. With a score of 64 (eight under), and the Toolbox team placed seventh.
San Antonio, TX — Award-winning communication design firm Toolbox Studios, Inc. is pleased to announce the addition of Matt Finlay and Julia Orrange to the Toolbox team as 2011 summer interns. They will become the latest in a long line of qualified student candidates to be chosen by Toolbox to participate in its selective internship program.
Finlay will gain valuable experience in copywriting and management of social media while acting as an assistant in design and production. Orrange will be assisting with the management of client accounts, as well as collaborating with other team members in marketing communications and social media.
Matt Finlay is a sophomore creative writing major at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and is also a San Antonio native. As a member of the prestigious Humanities Scholars Program at Carnegie Mellon, and a published writer, Finlay brings a unique perspective to Toolbox.
“The prospect of being surrounded by the creative minds at Toolbox was my motivation in applying for this position,” said Finlay. “When I found out I’d be working at Toolbox over the summer, I was definitely excited.”
Julia Orrange, who grew up in Georgetown, TX, is a rising senior at Trinity University in San Antonio studying marketing and international business. She previously worked as an account executive in the advertising department of her university’s newspaper, and will continue to hold that title when she returns to school in the fall.
“Working with Toolbox Studios this summer will be an amazing opportunity” Orrange said. “What better way to experience marketing than through an internship with such a reputable firm.”
Toolbox just completed a major iPad design and development project for a Fortune 200 client. Our challenge was to take a large amount of existing web and print content and re-imagine and repurpose it for mobile devices. Our charge was to ensure that iPad audiences had the rich, compelling user experience to which they were accustomed, and that we brought to bear the full spectrum of the channel’s interactive capabilities for the entire project.
It was one of those engagements that pulled together our staff’s myriad skill sets — strategy, deep publication experience, UX chops, HTML 5 software development, design and typographic acuity, custom illustration, photographic art direction, mission-critical project management and old-fashioned problem-solving. During the past quarter, we designed, produced, coded and tested over fifty interactive iPad articles and a bevy of high-touch HTML 5 templates for the client’s future use.
The project has been an overwhelming success. We helped the client navigate many of the complexities of working with HTML5, and we’ve learned a few things along the way as well.
This morning Rob and I were talking about the project’s high-points over lattes at a new coffee house that’s not too far from our studios.
We talked about five things we learned along the way:
1. Take advantage of iPad’s controlled environment.
Unlike web browsers, with numerous rendering styles served up on questionable monitors with varying pixel dimensions, mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad allow designers and developers to create with a single form factor in mind. Whether we’re designing an ereading application for the iPhone, or a web kit magazine for the iPad, the designers can approach the project with a strong command of the ‘page’ in front of them, simply because its pixel count, actions, gestures and rendering methods are a known quantity.
The iPad still presents challenges to developers and clients wanting to maintain good design. For example, it takes foresight, original design, and clear communication between designers and coders in order to properly create an animated feature article that flips between landscape and portrait mode on the fly without losing anything in translation.
2. Video can save your readers from long, boring print articles.
Rather than video being isolated from — or awkwardly tacked alongside — print design, we’re increasingly advocating for a thoughtful convergence of text, illustration, photo and video. Thankfully YouTube and Vimeo have made the short-form video normative, a standard which has paved the way for more integration.
We take our clients’ deeper-dive content (tertiary stuff that might otherwise be long, boring columns of type on the page) and chapterize the content into smaller chunks of digestible information — a perfect reason to have an inline video jukebox on an iPad app, for example. Video is increasing our clients’ traffic, it’s encouraging social sharing, and clients are asking for videos with illustration and animation that go well beyond simple talking heads.
3. Webfonts and iPads (still) make awkward dance partners
Apple’s most recent iteration of its iOS4.2 mobile operating system brings to life some significant web font improvements. Developers may recall that Mobile Safari used to crash when certain web font combinations were loaded; this seems to be fixed. As a developer, I can embed my client’s TrueType and SVG fonts within an iOS4.2 app, and that typeface will render on static and dynamic content, but two holy grails — OpenType typeface support and streaming webfonts that work in online and offline modes—are still elusive. This requires clear communication between developer and client when the issue of web fonts comes up. A recent iPad project we completed back in December served up evergreen content (unchanging articles that are always available whether or not a user is connected to the internet), but because the typefaces were installed, we had to limit ourselves to a few weights of the client’s font family. Which leads us to:
4. Start planning your offline experience early.
All of our recent iPad experiences have reminded us that clients and their designer/developers should be talking strategically about online and offline iPad user experiences from the very start of the project. What happens to your inline video content when a WiFi iPad user wanders out of range? What’s the messaging on an audio or video jukebox when a streaming video is unable to be accessed? Should you tradeoff and pre-load some teaser video content as part of the application download? How will my webkit typefaces work in offline mode? Think through these questions in light of your particular audience and their facility with technology, their propensity to be bothered if a given solution is unavailable, and in light of other content you can naturally offer in its stead.
5. We believe.
That is, we sincerely believe that the iPad is not only a compelling, well-designed piece of hardware, but that taking advantage of its form factor and nascent capabilities offers a smart, tenable path forward for our clients. All of our clients come to us because they have compelling stories which need help being told; we’re reminded daily that those stories can be brought to life using a whole host of mobile device tools we’re able to tap into.
The audiences for digital content on mobile devices is ever expanding. According to Wedge Partners, Apple will ship up to 100 million iPhones, and between 45 and 48 million iPads in 2011 alone. These projections build upon the 48-50 million iPhones and 13.5 million iPads shipped in 2010. At the recent Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, twelve new mobile devices (tablets/slates/ereaders) were introduced to go head-to-head with the iPad. As Rob just mentioned, “You know you’ve reached a tipping point when my own parents are in love with their iPad.”
We've already started our next iPad project and we're looking forward to building upon the lessons learned from this successful endeavor. Look for more updates from Toolbox about the growing mobile marketplace. So: what have you learned from using that shiny new iPad you got for Christmas? Drop us a line.
— Paul Soupiset, Creative Director, Toolbox Studios, Inc.
In 2009 Augsburg Fortress Publishers launched sparkhouse. This new Minneapolis-based resource design group was formed to “reimagine resources like VBS or Bible study in a way that creates new vitality, change, and relevance in Christian communities.”
This month, sparkhouse launched a new curriculum called re:form – the only confirmation program that offers innovative resources for pastors, youth pastors, volunteer teachers and parents who want to radically empower youth to tackle the powerful ideas of faith and theology. re:form makes confirmation an interactive experience through creative, culturally relevant and provocative videos, illustration, humor, and activities that speak to kids on their level and encourage them to explore and make their own personal discoveries about their faith journey.
Its first edition recently rolled off the presses and into our hot little hands. It features books and videos chock-full of thousands of intricate, hand-drawn illustrations, each rendered in the quirky style of our creative director Paul Soupiset. Those pen and ink illustrations were watercolor painted, scanned, color-adjusted, and fed into a production workflow that simplified our client’s video and print production processes. Several main pieces work together to create the re:form curriculum:
Here's one of 40 videos produced for the first edition:
Editor's Note: this article originally appeared on Rob Simons Says
by Rob Simons
Wow. What a first week! For all the people that were waiting for my review of Apple’s new iPhone 4, here it is – get ready for a roller coaster ride.
Before we start this journey, let me give the option to step out of line now. It has not been an enjoyable journey. Actually, it’s been very ugly in several places, with more twists and turns than I expected. And for an Apple diehard like me that’s experienced just about every Apple product since the Apple ][+, I didn’t see this ride coming. So if you’re still up for it, sit back and relax while we climb the first hill.
(Just to give you a sense of the tome I could have written, I was 2,000 words into the first half of the initial ordering experience when I decided to reboot.)
Ordering Experience
To keep this short, I’ll just say that the pre-ordering experience started out great, then quickly descended into hell. My first stop was the AT&T web site, but it was extremely unresponsive. So I decided to call 611 from my phone and order the three iPhone 4 upgrades directly from AT&T on the morning of June 17. The first AT&T rep was wonderful. If only that call had been the end of the AT&T experience.
Unfortunately, I needed to call back and make a minor modification to the order. What should have been a simple process evolved into 4+ hours of phone calls; several blatant lies from AT&T; an incorrectly canceled order; an AT&T manager that never called me back; a mysteriously re-instated order after I was told it wasn’t possible to get a new order; then the miraculous “early” delivery of my iPhone 4.
Yes. For some reason, I was one of the few that received my iPhone 4 via FedEx the day BEFORE it was released to the public. This later turned out to be a blessing and a curse.
Installation & Activation
After going from being told I wouldn’t get my iPhone 4 for several weeks, to receiving it a day early, I thought this was a sign from above that I need to...
Continue reading "Apple’s iPhone 4 Review: A Roller Coaster First Week" »
Editor's Note: this article originally appeared on Rob Simons Says back in April, 2010
by Rob Simons
After my first week with the iPad, I’m still pondering the most basic question, “What is the primary purpose and vision of the iPad?” I’m on my first trip with the iPad and I can’t quite figure out how it fits into my array of gadgets. The obvious answers include: an eReader, an Internet device, a mini-laptop (netbook), a multimedia player (photos, videos, audio) or a gaming device. I’m sure the practical answer is some combination of all of the above. But what was Steve Job’s vision for this device? And how does that vision work out in reality?
For this four day business trip to New York and Chicago, I have an impressive arsenal of computing power, including: my trusty iPhone 3GS, 17″ MacBook Pro, iPad, iPod Shuffle, Magic Mouse, Canon Digital Elph SD990 IS and Sprint Overdrive 4g Wifi device. I decided at the last minute to leave my Amazon Kindle at home (probably a foreshadowing of my conclusion, below). With these devices my briefcase makes me a chiropractor’s dream client.
A lot of online conversations have described the iPad as a device for consuming content. It’s hard to argue
Continue reading "Reprint: The iPad was designed to be an Amazon Kindle killer" »
Editor's Note: this article originally appeared on Rob Simons Says
by Rob Simons
As someone who remembers the excitement of upgrading from an Apple II+ to and Apple IIe – and just about every Apple device since then – I think it speaks volumes when I report that the new iPad completely exceeds my expectations for an Apple device. Considering the hype and online buzz that has been building for the past six months, the bar was pretty high for this half-inch thick device that is slightly smaller than a sheet of paper. And while the iPad is not perfect, many of the initial shortcomings that I’ve identified will fade with changes to online content and technology.
The Apple Brand Experience
First, I have to admit that my heart probably skipped a few beats when I
saw the brown UPS truck pull up in the parking lot at my office. How
many brands can elicit that kind of excitement about the delivery
truck? And kudos to UPS, they really did a nice job handling the
overwhelming task of delivering hundreds of thousands of iPads on a
Saturday. I posted a Tweet about my upcoming iPad delivery from UPS and I
Continue reading "Reprint: The Apple iPad First Impressions" »
“Rob Simons, president of Toolbox Studios Inc., is working with publishers transitioning to the digital world. After one month of using his iPad, he sees the device as one that is going to have an impact on consumer behavior in how they consume content. In showing his iPad to friends the first few days he had the device, Simons told me that he was surprised as to the number of non-techie types who would not traditionally be considered as early adapters expressing an interest in buying the iPad. He told me they liked the ease of use in checking and sending e-mail, using applications like Facebook and viewing photos.... Simons sees the notion of reading a book becoming one that is more social: you can not only read a book, but engage, comment and socialize with fellow readers.”
Alan Weinkrantz is a strategic
public relations and social media adviser to U.S. and Israeli
companies, and currently a guest lecturer at UTSA. Read more at
alanweinkrantz.com or on Twitter: twitter.com/alanweinkrantz.
Toolbox Creative Director Paul Soupiset and marketing guru Bob Carlton recently presented a morning workshop on the present and future of books, new media literacy, and transmedia storytelling. Paul blogged about it this week and pointed us to a great example of a place where transmedia meets our current technological frames of reference:
"Recently on a Saturday morning in Austin, I got together with client/friend/marketing genius Bob Carlton (Austin’s expert on eBooks and the future of eReading) to present a morning workshop on the present and future of books, new media literacy, and transmedia storytelling. Our audience wasn’t a random group of conference attendees, but rather we were presenting to the board of directors of the Texas Book Festival — a brilliant, fun and creative group of book lovers who facilitate one of the premier literary events in the country, annually hosting over 200 Texas and nationally known authors.
There, Bob described a term that was new to me, one which instantly made sense. He pointed out that, when it comes to books, we are in a [read the rest of the story on soupablog]
Isn't it nice when a little metal, resin and paint come together to create something magical? After culling down some of the options and refining the prototypes, these tap handles are the next cool, creative idea from the Toolbox beverage design team. Be on the lookout for these beauties at your favorite watering hole beginning March 2010. For more info on Alamo, visit alamobeer.com. We're gonna need a lot more beer!
Last weekend, account director Mark Broderick and president Rob Simons celebrated the Spoetzl Brewery’s 100th anniversary with a private tour and networking event hosted by the Texas chapters of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. Rob introduced Gambrinus Company CEO Carlos Alvarez as the keynote speaker. Plenty of live music, barbecue and cold Shiner Beer rounded out the festivities.
It's days like this that remind us why we love beverage marketing so much.
At Toolbox, we always have our ear to the street listening for the next cool product, service or trend. And after being tagged by some well-targeted online PR, I recently had the opportunity to sample Anheuser-Busch’s latest and greatest concoction, Bud Light Golden Wheat.
The new ale's nationwide release is scheduled for October 5th, 2009. For more information, check out Anheuser-Busch's official press release.
by Mark Broderick, Toolbox Studios' Food and Beverage Account Director
by Jamie Feola
One word: MacGyver. Give me a double-monitor G5 and a mouse and I can do anything.
I already can’t imagine being an intern at any other
company. I’ve seen every facet of the industry that I hear about and a whole
lot more. From logo and magazine design to beer research (really!); from calling
radio stations and faxing trafficking instruction sheets to the day I received a
printed copy of the Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition issue I helped
design, I can say my classmates and friends are fully jealous. Besides, now I
can happily say that my work has been seen by far more than just my parents and
close friends!
Toolbox Studios was proud to support the Texas Burn Survivor Society’s Annual Golf Tournament on June 5 at the Canyon Springs Golf Club in San Antonio. Toolbox sponsored the Wounded Warriors team, which included local firefighters and military veterans. Founded in 1962, the Texas Burn Survivor Society provides care, comfort and services to the critically burned and their families.
Toolbox Studios Founder and President Rob Simons shares his observations from the recent FOX Wealth Advisor Forum…
While it may seem counter intuitive, the current economic volatility actually provides financial services firms with numerous opportunities to grow and prosper. I was recently reminded of this fact when I attended the 2009 Family Office Exchange (FOX) Wealth Advisor Forum at the Trump International Resort in Sunny Isles Beach, Florida. The FOX organization hosts this annual event to bring family office and multi-family office organizations together to learn about the current trends in the industry and to share best practices.
As an event sponsor, I was able to interact with numerous attendees and speakers. These conversations reinforced that the shaky economy has created opportunities to attract new clients, add quality employees and re-energize your current staff. The following are a few of my key takeaways from the event:
Many of the most affluent are (right now) looking for new financial service providers.
According to Dr. Jim Taylor, Vice Chairman of The Harrison Group, 14% of Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) households are “currently looking into finding a new financial services advisor.” With thousands of households looking for a new financial advisor, it’s important to make sure your firm is positioned to attract these new customers. In fact, it’s more important than ever to make sure you have a clear message that stands out in the marketplace and differentiates your company. By solidifying your brand message you can make sure you’re poised to capture these new clients.
Communication is key to client retention.
The Harrison Group also asked UHNW households to rate how well their advisors are explaining the impact of the current economic situation to their portfolio. Only 67% of those surveyed gave a rating of “Excellent” or “Very Good.” So, over a third of respondents feel their current financial services firm needs to do a better job of communicating. So make sure your firm is doing a good job at communicating internally and externally about the current volatility in the market. During a time of crisis it is important to communicate regularly and clearly with your employees and clients.
Financial services firms are looking for new investment products.
According to the FOX research department, over 85% of family offices are “searching for new ‘opportunistic’ investment strategies.” If you are a private equity fund, investment banker or money manager, this is an outstanding environment in which to present your products to financial services firms. With so many underperforming products in the industry, firms are struggling to find secure investment models. Your product or service message should be clearly defined and positioned to fill the needs of those looking for ‘opportunistic’ investment strategies.
Talent retention is critical to success.
A managing director of a multi-family office commented, “Talent is the single most important thing in this market environment. Employers need to focus on keeping their best people and making sure they are not being poached away.” One of the critical factors to talent retention is clearly communicating within your organization. Employees want to know how the economy is affecting their employer and what is being done to grow the firm. Brand development is one of the best exercises to build consensus and focus your staff on growth.
In another survey by the FOX research team, almost three-quarters (74%) of UHNW households are “Pessimistic” or “Somewhat Pessimistic” about their investment returns for 2009. This reinforces that consumers are nervous about the current economy and will therefore be more receptive to extra communication from their advisors. It also indicates an opportunity to leverage these concerns and convert prospective clients into new customers.
Toolboxers and guests enjoyed their ninth annual Toolbox Studios Fiesta party with frozen margaritas rimmed with Twang salt, cold Dundee Original Honey Brown Lager, and plenty of Tex-Mex as they watched the Cavalier’s River Parade from the best spot on the parade route: the Toolbox offices.
Check out this year’s retro Fiesta invitation design and see pictures of the event on the Toolbox Facebook page.
The Toolbox Studios delegation hit the recent 2009 SXSW Interactive Festival
(sxswi) with several ambitious goals—to engage with other thought
leaders in the interactive design space, to share best practices, to
create new youth media collaborations and to validate a few
technological hunches based on evidence we've been researching.
We fanned out, employing the divide and conquer technique, given the breadth and depth of this year's offerings. We made ample use of Twitter to liveblog our findings, comment on sessions, and have a little fun as well.
Initial reports suggested a 38% increase in attendance at this year's conference—many sessions were filled beyond capacity and the creative energy was palpable.
Toolbox creative director / youth media account director Paul Soupiset has been distilling his notes from the five-day event and has shared the following six takeaways for youth media publishers, designers, game developers and marketers:
6. Teens [still] don't Tweet. While Twitter was hands down "the" tool at this year's SXSW Interactive (and one we recommend be part of any company's corporate communication plan... see more at #5), the 140-character micro-blog trend isn't being as eagerly adopted by teens. Anastasia Goodstein's YPulse teen panel again validated this hunch: You're just not going to reach a majority of 14-to-18 year olds with the über backchannel. Better to occupy the mobile space and MySpace. Facebook is there as well, but the "I wanna customize my space" fave MySpace is still top dog among this cohort. Should be interesting to see how this trend develops as Facebook and Twitter continue to dominate and grow the microblogging/lifestreaming space.
5."Not making plans is so totally Web 3.0." — this line from Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff writer, framed a second, related truism—Twitter was clearly still the rockstar and darling of sxswi. As McCarthy pointed out, when lines to get into parties at the Austin confab got too long, flash-mob intelligence via Twitter created new meetups, new parties, on the fly.
With a multitude of third-party tools and add-ons, Twitter offers increased freedom and mobility to stay on top of news and events in whatever niche you're interested in following.
And to those following the youth crowd, just because they aren't all on Twitter (yet), that doesn't mean their socializing isn't happening on the net—teens are embracing MySpace and Facebook, but moreover, they're embracing the relationships emerging from those connections. As Harvard fellow and youth media scholar Dana Boyd points out, "We have this belief that kids are just addicted to social network sites. If anything, they’re addicted to their friends. This “addiction” to friends is precisely what makes social networks so important, especially for tweens, who are more limited in their socializing options (until they can drive). There’s school, extracurriculars and the movie theater on the weekends, but with social networking they can be sure not to miss a single OMG moment.”
4. Get out of the way and let your audience explore. Interestingly, this reminder came out of an interactive game development session, although it was emphasized in later Web 2.0 panels as well. As one gaming expert stated, "the complexity of our gaming interfaces should level up with our users as they proceed [with gameplay]." The key idea here seems completely intuitive, but it found new currency with me at the Playing On! Interface Lessons from Games session: when we design games, instead of front loading the game with tutorials or a discursive set of rules, we should allow the player to start gameplay and learn progressively.
In the 2.0 panels, this prioritization of the audience surfaced more in the context of public relations and customer management. With social media, we all know you can't exert control over everything online as you once could. You can't play by the same rules, either. You have to learn to listen to the conversation, insert yourself/your company genuinely, and be okay that you can't predict or dictate the outcome. You can only monitor and react to it.
3. Design is still king. Evidenced everywhere I turned. Good design creates context. Good branding creates curiosity, loyalty, buzz and desirability. Too many examples to name. Okay, maybe one: Alex Bogusky's B-cycle (bicycle sharing) initiative.
2. It's all about R&R. Not rest and relaxation, but rewards and reputation. A fascinating seminar borrowed from the language of game playing mechanics and found parallels to be brought to bear in all of our social media apps. Rewards will need to move beyond simple point-tallying and actually show bling for levels attained (exemplary games display which level a user has achieved, which in turn earns him/her instant street-cred). The best of these apps incorporate some kind of collecting mechanism as well—a metaphoric trophy case—to show off those accumulated points. Whether it's medals on an army officer's uniform, merit badges on a girl scout's sash, or a collection of karate level belts, humans collect visual indicators of our advancement. Finding creative ways to do this on the application level rewards your avids, and offers a clear path for noobs who want to engage with your brand.
1. A Social Vote for Change Probably the most memorable session I went to was a lunch at Stubb's BBQ, where the topic was "Social Media for Social Change" — a lot was said about the distinction between using social media for charity and using the same tools to effectuate actual social, systemic, societal, or institutional change. 700 people RSVPd for this lunch. I was lucky to arrive early, which means I got in the door, actually ate a great brisket lunch (ironically/awkwardly eating my BBQ sitting next to two new friends who work at PETA2), and settled in for the conversation. The panelists included pioneer Beth Kanter, David Armano, Scott Goodstein, Stacey Monk, James Young and Randi Zuckerberg. For an engaging overview of the conversation, read Kanter's brilliant summary blogpost here.
Toolbox recently attended Smart Selling, a sold out sales and business event at Pearl Stable, presented by author and sales maven Jack Daly. Covering everything from customer loyalty to personal motivation, the all day workshop was delivered in two segments: a morning session for business owners and sales managers, and an afternoon session for sales professionals.
Here are some of our key take aways, including recommended books and Web sites:
Tips for owners and sales managers:
Tips for salespersons:
Books recommended by Jack Daly:
It was
white knuckles and fierce rivalry this week as the Toolboxers transformed the
production room into an arena of ten-pin obliteration. However, despite our
competitive natures here at Toolbox, we managed to have a great time letting
loose and showing off some of our Wii skills. And, in doing so, I think we all
learned something new about each other that we might not have known otherwise. For example, Joanne gets very
“vocal” when she competes, Mark and Steven are all talk, and our newest
addition to the Toolbox team, Jason, has a wicked lefty slice (we’re pretty sure he had been practicing
for quite a while). In the end, marketing specialist Alyse annihilated
the runner-up (me!) by bowling a turkey in the tenth
frame to take home the trophy in the final round of competition (I’m pretty
sure the trophy was a warm 40 oz. of Bud Ice). Congratulations, Alyse! (We’re
still considering having WADA check her
out for athletic legitimacy). Until next time, shine those shoes and throw ‘em
straight – the summer tournament is gonna be a battle!
As a follow-up to our previous blog post on Toolbox's support of the Boys & Girls Club through Golden Gloves, here’s a first-hand recap of the event.
Ding ding! The word is in: San Antonio just premiered some of
the best amateur up-and-coming boxers from South Texas in 15 bouts that would
make anyone’s head spin. From Sub Novice to Open Super Heavy 201+, all of the fighters
in this year’s San Antonio Regional Golden
Gloves Tournament showed incredible athleticism, superb agility and
indisputable heart. The open division finals, held at Alzafar Shrine Temple
this past Saturday night, let viewers watch young guns like Mark Martinez and Adam
Castillo raise their arms in triumph with likes of past local Golden Gloves
winners such as Tony
Moreno, Danny
Rios and Mike
Ayala, as well as past national winners such
as Muhammad Ali, Sonny Liston and Evander Holyfield.
As a ringside spectator, I can attest to the compelling strength and perseverance that lit up the room when these young men and women took the ring. In all, 18 fighters emerged victorious and will go on to Fort Worth (March 4-7) to compete at the state level. Those who have proven victorious at the state level will travel to the national level Golden Gloves Tournament of Champions (May 4-9).
The event was a huge success, raising over $90,000 in proceeds for the Boys and Girls Club of San Antonio. Congratulations to all the winning fighters. And to those who were not so fortunate—train hard… There’s always next year.
Toolbox Studios is getting ready to rumble for a good cause this Saturday night at the Golden Gloves Tournament, one of the country's top amateur boxing events and one of the biggest fundraisers for local non-profit the Boys & Girls Club of San Antonio. Deemed as "a highly entertaining and eagerly anticipated event, the biggest on the local boxing calendar," by the San Antonio Express-News, the Open Division Championship is scheduled to take place at the Shriner Palace off of North Loop 1604 starting at 7 p.m. Toolbox's support of the Boys & Girls Club included a Featherweight-level sponsorship of the tournament, as well as in-kind donations of design services for the event logo, invitation and an ad that ran in the Express-News. Read more in our Toolbox news announcement.
General admission tickets are $15 and must be purchased in advance. For more information, or to purchase tickets, please call (210) 436-0686.
Below from left to right, top to bottom: logo, Boys & Girls Club, Express-News ad, invitation front
Toolbox Studios Account Manager, Chase White, recently traveled to the Sundance Film Festival and reports back on social media trends...
I just returned from the frigid whirlwind of movies and marketing that makes up the international phenomenon we know as Sundance Film Festival. Each January, the small ski town of Park City, Utah crams in the best up-and-coming independent films, film buyers, actors, agents, corporate sponsors, the media and the public. This year at Sundance, I observed a particularly effective use of both emerging and established digital mediums that reached fans long before, and after, the festival itself.
Before I even left for the airport, I was already connected to the festival through Sundance Facebook, Sundance MySpace, Sundance Twitter, and of course the Sundance Web site. I used them to familiarize myself with the event’s happenings, hot spots, news and film information. However, once I got there, the Sundance tweets were by far my favorite to follow in order to stay updated on when and where to be while I was partaking in the festival’s revels. To boot, the Sundance tweets were efficiently widgeted into nearly all of their social media sites… Well played, Sundance. However, when out and about (navigating the flocks of people and traffic), no tool was as efficient as my trusty iPhone, which nicely displayed the incandescent glow of the Sundance iPhone Site.
Digging deeper into the festival, I signed up for Sundance’s e-mail program and SMS Mobile Short Code program. Both of these systems alerted me to events from the festival’s sponsors such as Brita and Nalgene’s FilterForGood campaign, which distributed 50,000 complimentary Sundance Nalgene bottles to Sundance visitors, which could be refilled at any and all Brita Hydration Stations around the festival. The goal of the program was (and continues to be) to reduce water bottle waste and help promote the use of sustainable filtered tap water systems. Co-op at its finest for a great cause.
On location, the party scenes were plentiful and very generous (once you manage to get in, of course). Of the finest, the 2009 House of Hype/Island Def Jam events produced by Spin Shoppe Canvas Media Group were unsurpassed. From their daytime hospitality lounges to the nighttime ultra lounges, they were planned and executed with good style in a very cool atmosphere—compliments to all involved. My advice to readers: if you can ever make it to a Spin Shoppe Canvas Media Group event… go. You won’t regret it.
All in all, the festival was very impressive. From the music, to the media, to the movies (my personal favorite), Sundance continues to ride the leading edge of the technological marketing movement. Furthermore, congratulations to all the film winners at the festival, I hope I am fortunate enough to attend next year (likely to drool over the rumored downloadable 2010 Sundance iPhone app).
Each year, Toolbox designs and manages the Valero Alamo Bowl site (www.valeroalamobowl.com) and the AT&T Cotton Bowl site (www.attcottonbowl.com). And each year we send a cadre of Toolboxers to the games to help the event staff manage game stats, upload content and track user activity.
Above: The Valero Alamo Bowl staff sent us this memento as a token of their appreciation.
Below: Mark Broderick (our food & beverage account director) scored extra tickets for his family to see his alma mater, Texas Tech, take on Ole Miss in the AT&T Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
Recent Comments