Home » Media & Marketing

Media & Marketing

Articles

Marketing firm broadens offerings, narrows focus: Hetrick projects 20-percent growth on fewer clients

In the last year, Hetrick Communications has hired 10 employees, added a major new client, and changed its focus. What was once primarily a public relations firm is now also an advertising agency targeting health care and life sciences. On the heels of the changes, Hetrick actually wants fewer clients. “We want fewer, bigger clients,” said Amy Ahlersmeyer, the firm’s president and chief operating officer. “We want our growth to come absolutely in the health care and life sciences sector.”…

Read More

SPORTS: Offended by the Pacers? Watch their defense

On Media Day Oct. 1 in Conseco Fieldhouse, all was well in the Indiana Pacers’ world. New coaches. New hope. New optimism. New season. New attitude. Save poor Shawne Williams’alarm clock-and, just askin’, but when was the last time you overslept an appointment with a judge?-and the lingering legal issues still facing Jamal Tinsley and Marquis Daniels, the feeling of looking forward and a fresh start was palpable. For those of you who have not yet met, or heard speak,…

Read More

PROFILE CAROLYN CLAY: Attorney ‘escapes’ from the infamous Rock Challenging open-water Alcatraz race gives a whole new meaning to ‘swimming with the sharks’ Editor’s Note: The original version of this story appeared in the July 11 issue of the Indiana Law

PROFILE CAROLYN CLAY Attorney ‘escapes’ from the infamous Rock Challenging open-water Alcatraz race gives a whole new meaning to ‘swimming with the sharks’ Editor’s Note: The original version of this story appeared in the July 11 issue of the Indiana Lawyer, a statewide newspaper for lawyers published by IBJ Media. Women in Business editor Della Pacheco added to the original story. Carolyn Clay has been swimming for as long as she can remember. The 29-year-old attorney at Indianapolis law firm…

Read More

Loss of institute may polarize Statehouse debate: Board considers shuttering respected government research organization

If the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute remains shuttered due to a lack of funds, the public won’t notice immediately. After all, the Indianapolis-based organization focused on long-term analysis of complicated communal questions, such as how to equalize property taxes, diversify state pensions or finance public schools. But taxpayers eventually will feel the impact. For 20 years, the institute has played a key role in Statehouse debate, helping frame major issues with hard facts and figures that conservatives and liberals alike…

Read More

EYE ON THE PIE: Whose opinion is worth something?

“But,” I reply, “opinions that float free of reality are not worth anything.” “Untrue,” Juniper answers, wiggling a toothpick at me. “Most opinions are based on what people feel, whether they know anything or not. If they don’t know much, their opinions are still valid as a product of what they believe.” “That’s a very generous view,” I say. “It helps explain some really dumb letters to the editors of our newspapers. I get many e-mails that demonstrate good knowledge…

Read More

THERE OUGHT TO BE A LAW: Hey dude, the boss is parking in my space!

I’ll admit it: Until recently, I thought “My Space” was simply where I stored “my stuff.” My bad, it turns out. Just ask that young staffer down the hall: The new place to see and be seen is MySpace, Facebook or one of the other online social communities. This summer, MySpace announced it had more than 70 million unique users in the United States-meaning nearly one in four Americans used the site, for a total of nearly 50 billion page…

Read More

Chevrolet pleased with ads, but CD sales hit pothole: Mellencamp is selling trucks, but not tunes

Hoosier rocker John Mellencamp is helping Chevrolet sell more trucks, but he’s having less luck when it comes to selling his records. In November, Mellencamp embarked on his first major commercial campaign, selling his song “Our Country” to Chevrolet for its Silverado pickup truck campaign. Since then, tens of millions of people have seen commercials-some that show Mellencamp playing guitar, while others simply play his song-during myriad collegiate and professional basketball and football games. Chevrolet officials said the commercials featuring…

Read More

SURF THIS: On the Net: Buying and branding the Bonds ball

Faithful readers may remember that my last column was about the young man who decided to sell the record-breaking home-run baseball hit by Barry Bonds. I found the story rather telling as it dealt with human nature, our proclivity to place sports figures on pedestals (often undeservingly), and an undercurrent of the value of authenticity and integrity. Even casual sports fans are aware of the mild controversy surrounding Bonds and his suspected use of performance-enhancing drugs. A few interesting things…

Read More

VIEWPOINT: Avoiding Chinese ‘fifth-shipment’ follies

The recent announcement by the Indianapolis company Gilchrist and Soames that it would recall its privately branded toothpaste because of concerns regarding its diethylene glycol content is a small part of a larger global concern about the quality standards of goods made in China. The same week, Mattel recalled more than 9.5 million U.S. toys over concerns about the use of lead paint. Many Indiana firms rely on a steady stream of qualified products from China, so now seems a…

Read More

NOTIONS: It’s no rant; we need to have a conversation

If you’re reading this column in ink on newsprint, thanks. It’s the medium that inspired me to be a journalist, the one that still lands on my driveway each morning and the one I recycle each Friday afternoon. If you’re reading this column on a Web site, thanks. It’s the medium that’s revolutionized communications, the one drawing droves of ad dollars and the one I can turn to any time to learn what I want to learn as it happens-long…

Read More

Commentary: Get the smoke out of our eyes

Andy Jacobs Jr. wrote in an IBJ column that smoking is an expensive and painful way to commit suicide. He’s right. But he didn’t go far enough. Breathing secondhand smoke at one’s place of employment is also an expensive and painful way to go. The world is beginning to read the smoke signals. Many countries have passed laws to protect their work force from secondhand smoke. Today, you cannot smoke even in an Irish pub. In our country, 22 states…

Read More

Subprime crisis a boon for apartment owners: Fewer renters are fleeing to single-family homes

Many of the banners touting free rent and other promotions have disappeared from Indianapolis-area apartment complexes. The concessions no longer are necessary as more Hoosiers look to rent, and they stay in apartments longer. Market observers say a big reason for the uptick is the subprime housing crisis and a resulting slowdown in new-home construction. “People are staying longer because it’s a little more difficult to purchase a home,” said Alexandra Jackiw, president of Buckingham Management LLC, a subsidiary of…

Read More

VOICES FROM THE INDUSTRY: Investing in liquid assets? Try giving water a good look

G e o – p o l i t i c a l events and the media keep our focus on the price of oil, its potential supply interruptions and the need to reduce our country’s dependence on foreign oil. Very little is written or reported about another very strategic resource-water. A top United Nations official addressing the 17th Annual World Water Week in Stockholm last August stated that water is going to be the dominant world issue far into…

Read More

SPORTS: What are these ‘professionals’ thinking? They’re not

An open letter to the Indiana Pacers Shawne Williams (boy, are these open letters to Pacers fun): My first question, Shawne: What were you thinking? But then, it’s obvious you weren’t thinking or, if you were, it was only about yourself and not the team or town Here’s something else that probably hasn’t occurred to you: Because of you, the highly respected Donnie Walsh and one of the greatest to ever put on a basketball uniform, Larry Bird, are being…

Read More

INVESTING: What should we take away from Buffett’s railroad bet?

Say the name Warren Buffett around investors, and they get a little star-struck. For more than 40 years, his publicly traded company, Berkshire Hathaway, has torn up the performance rankings. His value-oriented, patient method is probably one of the most copied strategies in the world. The media rightfully put a lot of light on his actions, and his latest step has my attention. When Buffett took the controls at Berkshire Hathaway in the 1960s, it was a textile firm. Today,…

Read More

Township wrestles with incorporation: As Greenwood, Bargersville annex commercial corridors, rest of township declines

White River Township in northwest Johnson County is dotted with an increasing number of high-priced homes and anchored by one of the area’s strongest school districts. But the area, known as Center Grove, also is marked by crumbling roads, poor drainage and an anemic parks system. To preserve its strengths and shore up its growing weaknesses, some in the area think White River Township needs to incorporate into its own city. The township of more than 40,000 residents faces the…

Read More

ExactTarget accurately predicts its fast growth

ExactTarget Inc.’s 2005 announcement that it would be moving into 30,000 square feet on Monument Circle and hiring 100 people over seven years seemed ambitious. Indianapolis was littered with the ashes of once-high-flying technology startups that had flamed out. But ExactTarget is fast becoming one of the city’s biggest technology success stories.

Read More

Web video series heralds Roman invasion at IMA: Produced in-house, the 11-part series is a first

When the Indianapolis Museum of Art landed the U.S. premiere of a 184-piece exhibit of Roman art from the Louvre, its staff knew the time had come to think big. “This show is considered a blockbuster,” said Daniel Incandela, director of new media at IMA. “I knew we should develop some blockbuster content ideas.” So he and his colleagues pitched their grand plan to museum leaders: They would travel to Rome and Paris to develop an 11-part series of digital…

Read More

SPORTS: Feel-good sports stories are out there-just look

No question about it, the feel-good that sport can create has taken a beating this summer. There was Barry Bonds breaking the Major League homerun record under the strong suspicion of steroid use, NFL star Michael Vick’s guilty plea on federal dogfighting charges, the betting scandal involving NBA referee Tim Donaghy, and the revelation of match-fixing in professional tennis. Just to name a few. It could really get you down if you let it. Yet, I’ve written this before-sport provides…

Read More

Ad agency scores national attention with MTV campaign: Bradley and Montgomery use Web’s social networks

Advertising agency Bradley and Montgomery launched an unorthodox campaign for cable television station MTV last month that is gaining the local firm-and its client-national acclaim. A friend of a friend led BAM officials to the New York-based music television channel, which was looking to promote the release of its show “The Hills” on DVD. BAM officials pulled video snippets from the show, enhanced them graphically, then uploaded the snippets to Web sites such as YouTube.comand Veoh.com. The resulting vignettes can…

Read More