1. In the old days, you had no choice but hire an agency to create commercials (big $), then pay them to buy media space (bigger $$). Today, your website is your TV channel, people are tuning out ads, and your web video can be seen 24/7 at cost. Post interesting, engaging content on your site and the right customers will come to you.
2. Google is God. Get religion.
   People search for everything they need things that will solve their problem or take away their pain. What they don’t usually search for is advertising.
3. Today, marketing is about education and less about pizzazz.
   Since people are searching for information on the web, you need to provide it. Example: Take a fraction of the money you were going to spend on an ad and media placement for your new router system and instead make a series of 2 minute videos that show how the router streamlines your data transport or reduces downtime. Interview customers. Show specifics. Then make the titles of the videos and the text that accompanies them match the keywords your target audience is searching for. Reach out to blogs that your customers read, and offer the videos for free as an educational resource. Know-how in the search-based marketing world is sexy. So if you’ve got it, flaunt it.
4. The best marketers are not in the advertising business.
   They’re in the memory business. Regardless of whether you’re working with a traditional ad agency, a PR firm, an interactive agency, or a fizdoodlemangiproper agency, ask yourself one thing: Is what they’re doing sticking in the memory of the right people?
5. I leave it to you to come up with reason number 5, or to shoot my blog post straight to hell with brilliant counterpoints. That’s because, as wonderfully described in the Cluetrain Manifesto, the world has moved away from one way broadcasting and towards conversations. Everything I’ve written here is just the start of a conversation. So, what do you think?

• Environment. Going solar gives me the power to do something about global warming.
• Money. I will eventually save money on my electricity (perhaps right away, based on the state and financing options).
• Energy independence. We as a country are too reliant on foreign fuel. Solar on my roof is my own personal power plant.
• Statement. Solar on my roof makes a bold statement that I’m doing something to help the environment, and that you – my neighbors – can follow my lead.
• Cool factor. Ironically, this massive ball of ultra-hot burning gas called the sun is the coolest power source on earth. It makes me feel like a cooler person just because I have it.
• Hate. My utility has been making me angry for years. Having solar says to them, “eat my sun.”
• Status. My environmental credentials are…
• Passion. I believe passionately that my country should never again fight a war for oil. Power from the sun is my way of saying, “enough.”
• Hedge. Having a solar installation helps me lock in a rate for my power, so I won’t suffer as much from rising electricity rates over the years (see “hate” above)

Not long ago, before the days of generous federal and state subsidies, the environment was the dominant single driver for going solar. The very early adopters for solar tended to be green in two ways: they had money to throw around, and they wanted to stop global warming. That equation has changed. Today, two factors in combination are the main drivers:

Money and Environment. I can save money and help the environment at the same time. So, why wouldn’t I? Many or all of the other factors play a role in the decision, but these appear to be the top two. Incorporating money saving and environmental preservation together is critical to the success of any solar marketing campaign in 2010.

Together with our partners, Captains created an integrated campaign that included “The Institute for Back-Up Trauma” web video featuring Dr. Harold Twain Weck (John Cleese), as well as a virtual institute that viewers could explore. The film tells the story of hapless IT managers that suffer from Back-Up Trauma – a psychosis that takes hold when out-of-date tape-based backup systems fail.

The campaign quickly went viral, as literally hundreds of websites and blogs created links to the LiveVault site.   LiveVault saw a 20% click-through rate on its e-mail blasts. Over 1,000,000 people watched “The Institute for Back-Up Trauma.” LiveVault saw a ten-fold increase in their site traffic, experienced a 500% increase in sales leads, and watched their sales double.  Talk about marketing ROI.

Before the launch of the campaign, Googling the words ‘Back-Up Trauma’ brought up only a few random hospital links. Today the term brings up literally hundreds of thousands of links from around the globe. This demonstrates why good web content is the centerpiece of organic search engine optimization.

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A reporter for the Wall Street Journal found “That’s Revolting!” through Google when hunting for antimicrobial products, and subsequently featured Agion in their weekend edition, delivering over 2 million impressions at no cost, and without any assistance from a PR firm. This is another example of how Captains of Industry’s web content improves search engine visibility organically. Good content is the core of a successful inbound marketing strategy.

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Captains of Industry has years of experience in renewable energy, but thanks to the economic slowdown in early 2009 landing a solar account was proving to be a daunting challenge.  One day Captains’ creative director, Ted Page, blurted in frustration, “If we don’t land a solar account this year I will eat my shorts!” Thus was born the Solar Shorts blog, with a video in which Page pledged to actually eat his shorts and put the video on YouTube unless the company landed some solar business. To launch the site, Captains reached out to friends and colleagues through social networking channels such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. The result? Emails and blog posts from around the world starting coming in immediately after the site went live, and within 2 weeks Captains had started its first project for the largest solar installer in the Northeast. The blog was featured in the Boston Business Journal. Renewable Energy World online magazine provided free web banners to promote the blog. And the videos have been seen throughout the solar industry. It’s another example of how good web content (in this case a funny video), combined with social networking can deliver terrific results on a budget.

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SolidWorks is a different kind of 3-D Mechanical Design and Software firm. They are passionate about their products and want their software to change the way their customers look at the world. That passion is reciprocated by their customers who love – LOVE – their products. Because engineers rely so heavily on peers and colleagues for product recommendations, Captains used video testimonials to transform the plethora of satisfied SolidWorks customers into the best new business sales force in the world. Whether it was an educator explaining how SolidWorks made reading classes possible in rural Africa or a Fortune 500 company crediting SolidWorks for helping them stay ahead of their competitors, the spirit of the customers became synonymous with the spirit of SolidWorks. Our powerful testimonials played an integral part in helping SolidWorks overtake their competitors to become the industry leader in solid modeling software.

Contact us to find out how to Captainize your testimonials

Contact us to find out how to Captainize your brand

Accidents and errors in hospitals are the eighth leading cause of death in the United States, a fact that’s enough to make us ill. In response to this glaring statistic, the Partnership for Patient Safety (P4PS) took on the challenge of catalyzing and cultivating positive change in hospitals’ and doctors’ approaches to patient care. Medical institutions and professionals are notorious for being resistant to change, so Captains needed to create something truly groundbreaking to help drive P4PS’s patient safety initiative.  

Captains worked with P4PS and the Risk Management Foundation of the Harvard Medical Institutions (RMF)  to create a video so captivating that it couldn’t be ignored. Instead of doing a standard (i.e. dull) talking head-style video, we created a riveting drama based on real closed claim files from RMF. The video, titled First, Do No Harm, chronicles the story of a young, late-term pregnant couple who trust a dysfunctional hospital system with their care. By showing how small errors build on each other and lead to tragedy, the video drives home – in a very powerful way – the need to change whole systems and cultures. First, Do No Harm was so moving it literally shook up the medical establishment. Within one year most major hospitals in the United States were using it as a training tool for their front-line caregivers. Today, First, Do No Harm has grown to become an entire series of interactive training films that are considered “must-see” viewing by patient safety leaders. For the staff here at Captains of Industry, nothing is more gratifying than knowing that something we created has actually saved lives.

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Whatman, a global life sciences leader, came to Captains when they needed an animation to showcase the benefits of their FTA technology used for capturing and storing DNA at room temperature. The resulting animation uses detailed motion graphics and good storytelling to make FTA technology easy to understand.

The Massachusetts Medical Society, a venerable institution dating back to the Revolutionary War, came to Captains of Industry when they needed to celebrate their 225th anniversary and reenergize their membership. The challenge was to convey the full breadth and depth of their history in a way that was exciting, engaging, and concise—no small feat given the fact that the society’s past mirrored the entire history of modern medicine. The Medical Society’s leaders wanted the video to make members proud, feel good about continuing their membership, and enthused about the future. Captains created a 15-minute video that told the Medical Society’s story in a highly compelling way, combining historical reenactments, interviews with leaders of the Society, and montages of archival documents. Doris Kearns Goodwin, a prominent historian who introduced the video at a gala event, summed up the audience response when she said, “I just loved it!”

Strategy and creative rationale:
History can be dull. Or history can be riveting. It all depends on how you tell the story. And good storytelling is at the core of what Captains does for clients. Instead of listing historical events onscreen, we did everything we could to make the history come alive. For example, we began the video with, quite literally, cannons blazing; it was the final battle of the Revolutionary War, a seminal event of the era that happened to coincide with the founding of the Medical Society. We wove the thread of dynamic, revolutionary change throughout the video, graphically demonstrating how Society members drove the adoption of groundbreaking medical advances. Just as important as the history, we showed how the Medical Society was poised to create tomorrow’s medical history. In the process, we helped get everyone in the audience genuinely excited about the future of the organization, and proud of their role as national leaders in the medical profession.

Contact us to find out how to Captainize your story

Contact us to find out how to Captainize your story