Rising Stream, LLC

Big news from the world of advertising - Nike has chosen to look for a new ad agency. Why is that important to you? Nike has been working with Weiden & Kennedy for decades, a firm that has come to be recognized for their role in turning Nike into a marketing monster. Yet, despite their lofty position in the advertising hemisphere, Nike has identified a weakness - Wieden has been slow to adapt to the Internet — an important arena for a marketer as focused on the youth audience as Nike.

From the Wall Street Journal:

The message is clear: No matter how talented an agency’s creative team or how well the client’s management likes the firm’s executives, the agency is of limited value unless it embraces digital media.

The decision Nike has made is focused on the youth market. What about your market? How are they using the internet and what steps have you taken to address their needs in working with your organization?

The title is a quote by Steve Hayden, vice chairman and chief creative officer of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. I pulled it from this Wall Street Journal article that is titled Minding the Blog Is the Next Big Thing In Managing Brand. Ogilvy is partnering with Technorati, a firm that bills itself as the recognized authority on what’s happening on the World Live Web, right now

The basic concept is that organizations should be tracking user created content, much of it within blogs, that reference your firm and your products. It also is an explicit recognization of the power of blogs to move markets.

This site is powered by blogging software. I provide support for nineteen websites in Springfield, MO and the Ozarks region that are all blog driven. The best example is a soccer website I established in April 2005 that is approaching it’s second birthday. I listen in the same way Ogilvy will be doing to track internet story ideas using automated tools that are freely available for the saavy user. Using these tools and reaching out to the soccer community in the region has increased traffic to over 30,000 unique visitors between February 2006 and today according to Google Analytics. Another free tool I use.

Your business can utilize a blog to establish a brand identity on the internet. Contact me to find out how simple it can be.