Fashion Bloggers as Brand Builders?

On Saturday I read an article in the Weekend Financial Times titled, "Style bloggers take centre stage", on the fashion industry's (reluctant?) embrace of bloggers, and by extension social media, as a means of reaching out to greater audiences. Specifically, the article mentions ByanBoy, a 23 year old fashion blogger and his newly-elevated status to the front row of a Dolce & Gabbana fashion show, up there with the ranks of fashion icons such as Vogue magazine's Anna Wintour and Suzy Menkes of the International Herald Tribune. Does a high end fashion house appealing to the Web Masses water down a brand, as many luxury retailers wonder? I think not, and in fact it can help build a brand and drive sales. Besides the overall uber-chic modernity of inviting a blogger to tap-tap-tap away at their laptop or iPhone from the front row, this is actually an extremely smart move, from a branding perspective, for Dolce & Gabbana.

The article mentions how some of the most popular fashion bloggers (for example Scott Schuman of the Sartorialist) can clock in over 200,000 followers - and that's excluding readers who may stumble across it from a typical Google search. These are all essential eyeballs that are vital to building and maintaining the D&G brand. Let's run a scenario from a marketing perspective – a blogger is given a front row seat at a fashion show, which costs nothing besides the ego of whoever got kicked out of that seat to accommodate him; he/she's given a handful of free designer samples; add a huggy/BFF photo op for a Flikr or Facebook page; and even toss airfare/hotel to attend the show into the mix (just guessing since I have no idea whether bloggers are paid to travel in such a way) and what you've got is a relatively low-budget method of reaching hundreds of thousands of users at a fraction of the cost of reaching the same numbers via a full-page advertisement in Vogue magazine. Finally, take into account the production costs saved (photo shoots, ad agency fees, etc.) and it sounds like a bargain at twice the price if you ask me! Why pay Mario Testino for an on-location shoot in Moscow with a team of supermodels when Tavi, a 13-year-old blogger from the suburbs of Chicago, will bring an iPhone to Fashion Week for you!

Even though the large majority of a blogger's followers will never be able to afford these high fashion luxury items, you can say the same of readers of Vogue, GQ or Elle magazine. And, just like magazine readers, luxury brands need a blogger's aspiring readers to keep their cache. In the same Weekend FT, I read about shoe designer Jimmy Choo's new limited-edition line at H&M. Target's always got designers creating gear for their stores. Giorgio Armani has A|X Armani Exchange, Chanel sells fragrances, Versace sunglasses, etc, etc. All extensions that help a brand and it's products reach the men and woman who may never step foot in a Madison Avenue flagship to purchase a $3,000 suit or a $15,000 ballgown. If you ask a typical blog follower (or Vogue reader for that matter) if she's got a Chanel suit sitting in her closet, the answer will most likely be "no". But, ask those same women if they own a bottle of Chanel No.5 perfume or a pair of A|X Jeans and the numbers can start to add up. Especially for the label.

Ahmed Yearwood
 Y INTERACT
www.yinteract.com

Follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/yinteract

Social Media 101 – Learn From the Big Brands You Use Everyday!

I just became a Fan of Ralph Lauren!

Truth be told, I've been sporting Ralph Lauren gear for as long as I can remember, but I just Became A Fan of Ralph Lauren on Facebook. I'm also a Fan of Calvin Klein, Equinox Fitness Clubs (where I workout) and Harney & Sons Teas (which we love to drink here at Y INTERACT). This is just a couple. On Twitter, I follow the Financial Times (which I read every day), JetBlue and the BoltBus (both of which do a pretty decent NY/Boston trip) and a number of other brands that I interact with, in some way or another, every day.

Why? Well, the first is obvious - I want the deals and discounts. If there's a 40% off sale at the Ralph Lauren store (or, to a lesser extent since I rarely buy clothes online, at RalphLauren.com) I want know about it! But it's also useful for my work since I'm curious to see how big, global brands are using social media. Perhaps I can take some of their tricks and techniques and apply them to my business.

In my opinion, retailers have it made in the shade with social media. The social world is their oyster! They can increase revenue by promoting all sorts of sales, discounts and more to their customers. News organizations such as CNN and the New York Times have it pretty easy as well - news headlines, etc. Another big winner in the SocialMediaSphere seems to be, well, social media - Twitter is gangbusters with social media experts who seem to do nothing all day but post articles on the teaching, plusses and minuses of social media. I guess this blog would count as one of those since I will tweet this when I'm finished writing it!

Less obvious, but I'm seeing more of it, is customer service - Where brands can directly interact with their customers in real time. Just a few weeks ago I was on Twitter wailing and whining that the BoltBus' Terms & Conditions to access the free WiFi wasn't iPhone-friendly. And, you know what? Soon after that, BoltBus was following ME on Twitter. Not just keeping track of what customers in general were saying, but now what Ahmed Yearwood specifically has to say about them. What a great way to be heard, and much quicker than calling a 1-800 number and going through a maze of "press 1, press 6, press 3" automated messages! All in 140 characters or less! For companies, it could also be a great way to follow customer trends and activity to be pro-active in their promotions. I actually have yet to hear of companies doing this, so when you read about it in the Wall Street Journal, remember you read it here first!

For Y INTERACT, a New York City-based design studio, I'm still working out the Secret Sauce on what all this social media stuff does for us (beyond the obvious: keeping clients, prospects and Friends of Our House updated on our goings on, new projects, etc), but like everything else, it's a cool work-in-progress. And learning while also keeping tabs on great spa deals at Equinox ain't a bad way to spend the day!

Ahmed Yearwood
Y INTERACT
http://yinteract.com

Follow me on twitter at www.twitter.com/yinteract

The Rise of Small Business in 2009

My economic indicator shows bubbling activity in Business Start-Up Land!

Out of the rubble of the 2008-2009 economic turmoil, many people seem to be contemplating going their own way and starting a business. And while I was an economics major at Harvard and still read the Financial Times every day, my economic indicator is a simple one: my in-box! Lately, we at Y INTERACT have been getting a higher than usual number of phone calls along the lines of "I've got a friend who is starting a business and they need a website…", or, "Do you do logos?..." This also includes current clients who are already in business but are branching into new entities.

It's classic Economics 101 at work – an economy on its knees is prime time to start a new business, for a couple of reasons:

1. After personal economic circumstances shift, many who have contemplated living the dream of running their own company decide to take the plunge and go their own way. After all, if you've lost your job and are having a tough time finding a new one, what have you got to lose, right?


2. Start up expenses, everything from talent to supplies to office space (if you're in the market for it), can often be found at discounted rates due to a soft economy.


3. And lastly, potential clients (consumers and companies) often start looking for alternatives to their current vendor list – smaller more nimble shops that can accomplish the same task sooner and cheaper!

I started my design studio, Y INTERACT, in aftermath of the dotcom bubble bust (the dot BOMB!), and that was now – knock on wood – over eight and a half years ago. Fingers crossed for another eight and a half.

And, contrary to what you might read about in the tech rags and in the news, most new businesses aren't financed with millions of dollars of venture capital funding. Most are done via good 'ole fashioned boot-strappin' it: Tapping into the savings, borrowing, bartering, etc.

I just dug up a stat (click here) saying that 25% of all startups fail within their first year, and over half (55%) will fail within five years. So, the trick is not actually starting a business, but STAYING in business once the dust settles around you.

Here's to all ambitions to make the 45% Club!

Ahmed A Yearwood
President
Y INTERACT
http://www.yinteract.com
Follow me on Twitter @yinteract

Getting started in social networking? Take your name NOW!

It happens more often than you think - you sit on the fence deciding whether or not you want to start a new online initiative (such as a Twitter feed, a Facebook page, a blog, or even build a new website), you finally make the decision to rock and roll on it, and find that your name is already TAKEN! And while of course there are always alternative names you can select, nothing ever beats the real thing.

It just happened to one of our clients this morning. In the process of an initial meeting to discuss social media, submitting a proposal, getting a Green Light, and our initial Next Steps call (which only lasted about 10-14 days total) their Twitter URL went from available to taken. In the past, it has also happened a couple of times with website URLs.

Unfortunately, cyber-squatters and profile squatters are RAMPANT on the 'net, other businesses with similar or identical names may be out there with the same idea as you, and (in the case of big global brands and celebrities) there are always a number of fan-related (and hater-related) sites that crop up as well. Rikin Diwan at the New York Post discussed this during the Social Networking 101 panel panel discussion that Y INTERACT co-hosted with the Wall Street Journal last April. You can find this discussion on Y INTERACT's YouTube Channel, Y INTERACT tv (view part 3 of 3 where this is discussed).

A word to the wise - even if you're not sure that you want to commit to developing and maintaining social media/web 2.0 channels - go online and claim your name/brand, even if you just sit on it for a while. Especially since (these days at least) social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are all free, and domain names are extremely cheap to own.

With the millions and millions of web users out there, someone else might grab it while you're thinking about it.

Ahmed Yearwood
President
Y INTERACT
http://www.yinteract.com/

Follow me at Twitter @Y INTERACT

MTS Health Partners' Website Gets a Facelift – Website Design by Y INTERACT

Y INTERACT has recently launched a new website for MTS Health Partners, one of the pre-eminent healthcare merchant banks. With a more modern, cleaner look and feel, the new website, http://www.mtshealthpartners.com, clearly delineates the two key areas MTS Health Partners specializes in – Private equity investing, and strategic advice and financing services – an important distinction that was missing in the previous website design.

Behind the scenes, the new MTS website features a custom-built content management application for updating all site content, including page copy, news, team bios, and senior manager headshots. MTS can even create, remove and update mini-tombstone advertisements that illustrate recent transactions, as well as manage older transactions within sortable tables, all without any HTML coding knowledge.

Since MTS Health Partners does not regularly issue news alerts and press releases, the site's application also includes a function to add or remove news from the website's home page with just a simple check box.

In addition to the design and construction of the website, Y INTERACT arranged a photo shoot at MTS Health Partners' midtown Manhattan offices to shoot the Senior Managing Directors for each of their profile pages.

You can find the newly designed website at http://www.mtshealthpartners.com.

For cool before-and-after screenshots of the site, visit Y INTERACT's Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/yinteract.

Ahmed Yearwood
President
Y INTERACT
http://www.yinteract.com

Follow me on Twitter @yinteract

My Adventures At Puma City, Boston

As part of their sponsorship of the Volvo Ocean Race - a nine-month yacht race around the world - Puma created Puma City, a mobile retail and entertainment comprised of 24 shipping containers. It was in Boston (the only US port in the race) for only three weeks. It's gone now, but not before I had a chance to check it out last week!

Designed by LOT-EK, Puma City was one of the coolest spaces I've seen in quite some time! Not only as a great retail outlet (where I managed to pick up a few items) but the top level had a full bar where, at night, became a total lounge with guest DJs spinning an awesome vibe. Totally free to the public (except for the VIP level - where unfortunately dropping a lot of coin on Puma gear did not get one access) the line to get up there was ridiculous!

The sales people were friendly and extremely knowledgeable. Speaking to one of them, I learned that the staff at Puma City were the top sales managers from Puma retail outlets throughout the US. As a reward for being the cream of the crop at Puma, they got to spend three weeks in Boston at the mobile retail space. Talk about a win/win - employees get the inspiration to perform and reward for doing so. Customers (like myself) get friendly staff who were not just sales representatives, but fantastic brand ambassadors.

Hats off (Or, should I say "sneakers off!") to Puma! Just one thing - the only link I could find to get any information on the place was their Facebook page. Of course that's very modern, 2.0 and all, (I mean, Y INTERACT has a Facebook page, too!) but if I were Puma, I would have also created a fully-branded out website for the space. But then again, of course I'd say that - I would love to have built it! Does that make me "old school"???

Click here to view some cool photos I uploaded to the Y INTERACT Facebook page.

Ahmed Yearwood
President
Y INTERACT
http://www.yinteract.com/

(@yinteract on Twitter)

Social Networking 101 Panal Discussion – What I Learned

On April 30th, 2009, Y INTERACT and the Wall Street Journal sponsored an evening panel discussion and reception titled, "Social Networking 101." The event was attended by over 100 media professionals who came to get insights on the 2.0 space from four distinguished panelists: Gary Sheffer, Executive Director of Corporate Communications, GE; Steve Rubel, SVP, Director of Insights, Edelman Digital; Josh Stinchcomb, Executive Director of the Condé Nast Digital Business Group; and Rikin Diwan, Online Business Development, NYPost.com.

It was a great night – extremely informative and the Tweetinis weren't too bad, either! I had a number of key take-aways from the panel group. The one that immediately comes to mind is Steve Rubel's idea of "Digital Embassies" – how marketers need to create and maintain not just their website, but also build communities on the Facebooks, LinkedIn, Twitters, Blogspots, etc, of the web. As the players change, you need to build and maintain new Digital Embassies. As others begin to play out, it may be time to close one and move on.

Gary Sheffer talked about the opportunities that companies have to tell a story, and use that to take control of your brand. To become journalists inside the company. There's a constant, ongoing conversation taking place about your brand, and you have an opportunity to either participate (and help shape) that conversation, or not participate and just let the wave of conversation wash over you. Gary also likened traditional media to a train that makes regular, consistent stops along the way, versus the web and 2.0 channels, which are more like a river – continually flowing, changing, where people are continually tossing stuff into it. Marketers need to stay on top of this rapidly moving information.

My big take-away from Josh Stinchcomb was an answer to the question: "how can marketers make money from all this?" His advice was that marketers need to get more creative about how to monetize their 2.0 strategies. You may not make any direct $$ from posting on Twitter or your LinkedIn group, but revenue may come from building your brand or your name. For example, becoming an authority in a specific area, then generating revenue via speaking engagements, or getting additional business from the greater name brand awareness that you have. (Also, let's not forget that brand value is extremely important, and measurable. How to appropriately attach a $$ value to a brand? That's a whole other conversation!)

Rikin Diwan was right on point when advising to claim your name and claim it NOW. I give this advice to my clients ALL THE TIME – don't sit on the fence because someone else can take your name right from under you! Rikin also recommended that marketers really need to "just do it" so to speak. You don't need to tweet or blog post every day, but you should commit to doing it – even if it's just once or twice a week. You don't need GE-sized budgets to enter the 2.0 space, but if you're going to invite others to follow you, become a fan, or read your blog posts, you'd better give them something or you'll lose them.

To learn more about each of the panelists and where you can find them in 2.0Land, visit Y INTERACT's event micro-site at http://www.yinteract.com/sn101/

Ahmed Yearwood
President
Y INTERACT
http://www.yinteract.com/
(@yinteract on Twitter)

A Tale of Two Sneakers

Ad Campaigns Will Fail in the Home Stretch if Your Brand Reps Aren't On Board With Your Message

According to an article by David Marsh in today's Financial Times, "service blossoms in a downturn. Waiters wait, usherettes usher, doormen open doors." I'd agree with this 110%. As budgets get squeezed, buyers have greater choice, and competition intensifies for each new sale.

Unfortunately, no one has conveyed this message to the sales reps in New York City's Nike store.

Yesterday, I was coming out of a midday meeting in midtown. I've been looking to purchase a new pair of sneakers for weeks but time is always so tight. Anyways, being relatively close to the Nike store, I thought I'd drop in. I mean, it's Nike, you can't go wrong. I've bought into their million dollar ad campaign messages, "Just do it," from back in the day, Tiger Woods, etc. And, honestly, even though I don't quite recall what Nike's post-"Just Do It" tagline is, I'm still on board. I was looking forward to exploring the myriad options at my feet in their mega-flagship on 57th Street. I could even see myself trolling down Fifth Avenue with my "swoosh" shopping bag, and going to Cardio Kickboxing sporting my phat new gear.

Unfortunately, Nike, "Just Blew It!" After 1) dealing with three sales reps who seemed to have very little, if any, product knowledge, 2) finding it tough to get anything beyond a one-word answer to my questions, and 3) getting one of those "try those over there" (with a point across the floor, as if I could call the stock room and try shoes on myself), I was done. I left and decided that my quest for a new pair of sneakers would just have to wait.

Later that day back in the office, I thought, "Why not try the Adidas store?" I'll admit, I know Adidas by name but I'm kinda old-school - my perceptions of that brand went out with Run DMC back in the late '80s. I really didn't know much about Adidas besides the fact that it's a big European label (pronounced over there as "Ahh-DEE-das"), I've got some of their workout wear (which I dig), and I'd guess their main spokesman is David Beckham. But I'm a Europhile so I'd check it out. Plus, I was leaving work soon and their mega-store, on Houston Street, is just a few blocks from our studio on Canal Street.

What a great experience! My sales guy, Stefan, clearly knew all his stuff, was extremely helpful in answering my questions, and allowed me to sample many different styles and sizes, and all while never rushing me despite the fact that I arrived within 30 minutes of closing time. Not only did I walk out with a new pair of sneakers, but I definitely plan on heading back sometime soon to browse the rest of the store when they're not so close to closing. And, next time I'm looking for a new pair of sneakers, I know where I'm going.

Unfortunately, situations like this are way too common. As companies spend tons of money on long-winded marketing campaigns to impress consumers and external audiences, many times they fail to recognize that one of their most important target groups are their own employees. A million dollar ad campaign will only get a brand so far if client-facing ground troops - the men and woman who deal with the customers and prospects all day - aren't on board with the message. After all, Tiger Woods might come to mind when I think of Nike, but he's not the guy helping me try on a pair of "Air-Whatever-The-Hecks" during a long-winded lunch break. In my opinion, Nike clearly doesn't get it. Adidas clearly does. Another brand that immediately comes to mind as one that gets it, is Apple - the reps in an Apple Store are so on board they must bleed 1s and 0s!

Another company that clearly gets it is one of our clients, INTTRA. At Y INTERACT, we are currently in the middle of a marketing campaign with INTTRA - the shipping industry's preferred e-commerce platform - called "The Next Wave". The target audience is all INTTRA employees, with a campaign that includes posters, plasma animations for worldwide reception screens, desktop screensavers, the intranet (which we call the "INTTRAnet"), and more. The objective is to inform and educate employees about new initiatives at INTTRA. Their marketing team understands that communicating a message out to the world will only get their brand so far. However, if the representative picking up the phone, or the sale rep making a client call doesn't understand the messages swirling around them, it could cost them business. And these days, that business is more important than ever.

Ahmed Yearwood
President
Y INTERACT
www.yinteract.com

Calvin Klein knows fashion, but they have a lot to learn about designing e-marketing campaigns!

I'll admit it - Nothing comes between me and my Calvins. I'm a total Calvin Klein loyalist, and have been for many years in everything from blue jeans to whatever products they are selling in their John Pawson-designed flagship on Madison Avenue. At one point a few years ago, I was even putting out feelers to people at both Calvin Klein and Philips-Van Heusen (parent company) about the possibilities for a calvinklein.com website – at the time they did not have a website – yet that never materialized for us. And when calvinklein.com finally launched, I was all over it (despite the fact that it was not a Y INTERACT site). So, when I received a recent promotion to join their email list, it was a no-brainer. Of course I'd like to be kept abreast of sales and promotions. Sign me up!

Unfortunately, however, I'm disappointed. Over the last couple of days, I've received a handful of email promotions from calvinklein.com, but all for woman's wear – dresses, knits, female underwear, etc. From the perspective of a customer, it's annoying to have my in-box littered with promotions that, not being a woman, are completely irrelevant to me. As a marketer, this simply strikes me as poor email strategy. They are clearly just blanket e-blasting and not targeting, and what many fail to realize is that targeting is the beauty of email communications.

With just a few quick questions at sign up (for example, male/female, perhaps ZIP code), marketers can get enough information on a prospect to keep messages pertinent while avoiding long-winded questionnaires. When a visitor expresses interest in your brand, product or service, marketers have a little bit of wiggle-room to gather the basic information you need to make your messages relevant. This will help keep your prospects on board and convert them into buyers. In the reverse case of poor email marketing, I (a Calvin Klein brand loyalist) am now just 1-2 messages away from that dredded "unsubscribe" link. Of course, these e-transgressions won't keep me from stepping into the Madison Avenue store the next time a "40% off" flag is waving outside, but in terms of their online communications channel, that low-hanging fruit might soon be falling off the tree!

People are busy. They don't have time for noise in their in-box. Last fall, we worked with our client, INTTRA – the shipping industry's preferred global e-commerce platform – and a partner vendor, 1to1 Dialog, to create a Flash-animated product tour that included a very quick questionnaire (just six fields) for interested visitors to get additional information. The sequence was not blocked by the questions – it appeared on the right of the animation to allow interested viewers to complete it before, during or after the product tour, and get more information from INTTRA. Armed with just a little bit of information such as name, country and job title, INTTRA can now segment their communications by region, job responsibility, or even distribute messages in multiple languages.

After all, to regularly send US customers promotions for products that are only available for Asian markets is simply noise. And gets your prospects that much closer to their "unsubscribe" link.

Ahmed Yearwood
President
Y INTERACT
www.yinteract.com

It's 9.26pm on a Thursday Evening and I'm Social Networking

The term, "social networking" is extremely ironic since there's absolutely nothing social about sitting in your office at (now) 9.27pm on a Thursday evening tapping away into a laptop. At this point in the evening, I'd much rather have caught the tail-end of the Happy Hour somewhere. Or tonight's rugby practice that I was telling myself I was going to get to. But I'm here in our Canal Street design studio. Social networking.

Being more specific, I just finished 1) claiming and 2) updating my ZoomInfo.com profile. Honestly, I never really gave ZoomInfo much credit until I read quite recently that it is a trusted resource for getting information about people, so I thought I'd better update it. And not necessarily because I expect a journalist from Time magazine to be scoping me out for an article (well, perhaps not this year!) but because ANYONE can be scoping me out as a potential vendor, business partner, or whatever. I had noticed that ZoomInfo ranked pretty high up on a typical "Ahmed Yearwood" Google search, so I figured it was time to finally correct the handful of inaccuracies in there. There were just a couple. I'm sure Brangelina has teams of people to sort out all the junk they've got out there against their name(s)!

These days, EVERYONE's talking about social networking. I don't think many quite get what it's all about (and I'll raise my hand and admit I'm still trying to get my head around it!) but the one comment everyone seems to make is that it's rather time-consuming. And it is. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, Delicious, Flickr, ZoomInfo, High5, Blogspot, etc, etc, etc – it's a lot of content to manage and working through it all IS time consuming. Big companies like Dell hire people whose sole responsibility is to manage their web 2.0 communications. Well, Y INTERACT isn't that big (yet), and that's why I'm here, in the office at (now) 9.43pm on a Thursday evening social networking. During the course of the business day, I've got "regular course of the business day" responsibilities to manage – like clients, my design team, and all the ins and outs that come with running a design studio, or any business for that matter!

It's definitely got its advantages, however. For me, the 2.0 channels offer an opportunity to expand Y INTERACT's brand in a way I never would have thought imaginable a few years ago. And, while everyone's always banging on about S.E.O. (Search Engine Optimization), the 2.0 channels are a great way to cast an extremely wide Y INTERACT net for great Google pickup. My objectives are very specific – I'm not targeting people who go online Googling "website designers." After all, there are a ton of companies out there who do what we do (although not as well of course) and broad searches like that are a short route to mini sites for magicians that simply aren't our market. However, when someone types in "Y INTERACT" after hearing about us, by either word of mouth, meeting one of us, a job bank, or from an event that we were involved with, that's what I want to manage. Additionally, given that at least 50% of Y INTERACT's revenue comes from developing online media (the other half coming from print media/graphic design), we've got to be clued into this stuff. And lastly, I'll admit it's also kinda fun at times, it's a GREAT opportunity to keep in touch with friends I haven't seen in ages, and I'm a bit of a workaholic anyway. If I weren’t in the office social networking, I'm sure I'd be doing some other form of work right now! And watching two hours of Anderson Cooper "Keeping them Honest" on his CNN soap box gets rather mind-numbing after about 10-15 minutes.

At Y INTERACT, I think we've got most of the "of the moment" channels covered

• We use our Facebook page for more fun items – event photos, new client gigs, random stuff that we just like to toss out there as a design group
• On our LinkedIn group, I post articles of interest. These can be related to design and architecture, business/finance, technology/IT, the works. I read the Financial Times every morning so a good number of articles come from the FT.
• Twitter is a bit more random, "What is Ahmed doing right now???" It's fun and a great way to engage people with similar interests to yours. I've got some AWESOME music tips from others who I follow on Twitter
• We use Flickr for posting and tagging photos (and DON'T FORGET TO TAG YOUR PHOTOS, BECAUSE THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT) from our events, such as the Race for Kids Fundraiser, or our Chinese New Year party.
• And this blog, "Notes from Canal Street" – I still haven't entire figured this one out yet as this is just my second blog. But here I will be posting more PR-related content such as product launches, milestones in our studio, and rants just like the one you're reading now

If, after reading all this, you find yourself more confused then you were before, then join us for an event that we're calling "Social Networking 101", a cocktail party and panel discussion on how individuals and marketers can make heads and tails of all this 2.0 stuff. It will be on April 30th at Certe (20 West 55th Street, b/t 5th and 6th), from 6-8pm and Y INTERACT is the sponsor. Details and online bookings will soon be available via the Financial Communications Society website, http://www.fcsinteractive.com/. Panelists are still being finalized, so watch this space for details!

It's now 10.08pm on a Thursday evening and I think I'm going home. Or, on second thought, I think I might actually stop off for that (now) non-happy hour beer. So what if it's no longer half-price, or two-for-one, or whatever the special-of-the-moment was. I'll pay a bit more for it but, as Beyonce famously says for L'Oreal, "I'm worth it!"

Ahmed Yearwood
President
Y INTERACT
http://www.yinteract.com/

One Quarter Down, Three to Go!

Today is a great day to start a blog! Not because it's April Fools Day, but because we at Y INTERACT are one quarter down, three more to go for the oh-nine.

I'm glad to say that Y INTERACT has started the year on solid footing. Of course, our design studio has been affected by the economic downturn just like everyone else, but we still continue to work with core clients, while also managing to pick up some groovy new business as well. In fact, I see these times as an ideal opportunity to further develop the range of services that we offer at Y INTERACT, as well as expand our portfolio of work.

We started the year with a new client, MTS Health Partners (http://www.mtspartners.com), one of the preeminent healthcare merchant banks, on a website redesign that's moving along well! We just finished the design phase of the project and we're now building it all out (HTML production, content management application development, testing). Watch this space for the new site!

Y INTERACT recently launched a redesigned website for Victor Buhler, the Academy Award-nominated Director whose film, "Riker's High", won the "New York Loves Film" Award for Best Documentary Feature at the Tribeca Film Festival, and has also been nominated for an Emmy Award. Check it out at http://www.victorbuhler.net.

Expanding our community initiatives, Y INTERACT is proud to be a new supporter of Cool Culture (http://www.cool-culture.org), a non-profit organization that provides underprivileged children and families with free, unlimited access to 80 of New York's finest museums, botanical gardens, zoos, and other cultural institutions that they may not otherwise have access to due to financial constraints.

In February, I was invited to join Cool Culture's board of directors, and I also agreed to co-chair the Cool Culture 2009 Spring Benefit (May 14th at the South Street Seaport – details to follow!) I am extremely excited about both of these. Y INTERACT donated creative services to the Spring Benefit by designing a killer save the date and invitation. We just got the invitations from the printer, and they look amazing (if I do say so).

Y INTERACT continues our on-going relationship with INTTRA – the leading global e-commerce platform for the shipping industry – to design and construct media for all INTTRA office locations worldwide (and in over a dozen languages!) We recently completed an overhaul of INTTRA's core collateral, started design on an exhibit kiosk for the INTERMODAL South America 2009 Conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, delivered a suite of print material for INTTRA's team at the Transport Logistic 2009 Conference in Munich, Germany, and continue to maintain their website, http://www.inttra.com, as well as their client extranet.

And we finished Q1 on a high note – delivering a Flash widget to our newest client, the National Basketball Association. Created for the WNBA, watch this space for it at http://www.wnba.com when the season starts on April 9th, 2009.

Looking ahead at Q2, we've got plenty in store for the months to come. Y INTERACT will be collaborating with an artist in London on a new site design, we've got event sponsorships in the works, and perhaps will even host an event or reception here at our studio on Canal Street, New York City. In the middle of all this, we plan on launching our own new site at http://www.yinteract.com.

It's all very exciting stuff, and that's no (April Fool's) joke!

Ahmed Yearwood
President
Y INTERACT