Industry News

Written By: Allen P. Adamson, Managing Director, Landor Associates & Author of “BrandSimple”

Timely. Allen Adamson's "BrandDigital" is a fantastic study of the current Digital Marketplace thru the lens of classic principles in effective brand management. In the past decade the 'traditional' language of communications has been put into a high octane blender. "BrandDigital" explains thru relevant business anecdotes how today's game changing strategies all seem to contain those same fundamental values in successful brand building. I suggest you read it once and then read it again with a pen.

- Phil McIntyre, CEO of The Brand Gallery

Check out "Mad Men in a Digital World" by Allen Adamson

Posted by PGM at 05:14 PM | Permalink

March 10 & 11, 2008-Hollywood has been selected as the host city for the first annual Computer Generated Images for Advertising & Marketing conference (CGAM). CGAM will take place at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel .

CGAM is the premier annual global conference for professionals focusing on cutting-edge technology and the value of Computer Generated Images (CGI) in marketing and advertising. The conference features a variety of tutorials and conference sessions that cover current topics related to CGI.

CGI experts, ad agencies, implementers, manufacturers, inventors, clients and vendors attend this unique conference. The interactive format makes the CGAM Conference a great place to meet and exchange ideas with leading experts, find out about the needs of potential clients, or get information about new and existing products.

Jeff Kleiser, Visual Effects supervisor, CEO and Co-Founder of Synthespian Studios will be giving the keynote address along with a Motion Capture & Character Animation in Feature Films and Commercial Productions presentation at this exciting, cutting-edge conference.

Kleiser, being a pioneer working in computer animation, has spanned the history of the medium. He has contributed to films with groundbreaking visual effects including “Tron,” “Stargate,” “Judge Dredd,” “Clear and Present Danger,” “Mortal Kombat Annihilation,” “X-Men,” “X-Men United” and “X-Men: The Last Stand.” He served as senior visual effects supervisor on “The One”—a film starring martial arts master Jet Li that required the development of innovative digital face replacement techniques. More recently, Kleiser has supervised visual effects for “Son of the Mask,” “Fantastic Four” and “Scary Movie 4.” In addition to supervising visual effects projects, Kleiser has directed numerous commercials.

Jeff Kleiser has presented papers at many international events including the London Effects and Animation Festival, SIGGRAPH, INA Imagina, NAB, Opera Totale and the Virtual Humans Conference. He has served as an industry expert in interviews with The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times and The ABC Evening News. Kleiser serves on the board of directors of the Visual Effects Society and the board of trustees of The Norman Rockwell Museum. He is a founder and trustee of the Williamstown Film Festival and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In addition, Kleiser teaches Computer Animation Production at Williams College.

To learn more about Synthespian Studios visit Synthespians.net.
To learn more about the conference visit cgamconference.com

Posted by PGM at 05:54 AM | Permalink

September 5, 2007—New York—With the launch of HighSchoolPlaybook.com – a new social networking site devoted to high school sports developed by Hearst-Argyle Television – the broadcaster turned to New York-based boutique agency The Brand Gallery to develop an edgy new brand and a major creative campaign to resonate with the high school audience.

For years, Hearst-Argyles’s local TV stations have been providing in-depth coverage of high school sports in their respective markets. But with the launch of www.HighSchoolPlaybook.com the broadcaster is taking it to a whole new level, incorporating social networking with comprehensive statistics, interscholastic comparisons, and individual athlete profiles. The site will feature personal profile pages, blogs and SMS voting as well as video content generated by Hearst-Argyle’s professional TV videographers and specially trained student reporters outfitted with Canon HDV cameras, as well as user-generated content from students and fans. All of this is supported with an equally impressive cross-platform promotional strategy developed by The Brand Gallery to launch the brand, and reach out to the target demographic.

“It’s a social networking site, and that’s a hot trend these days,” said Phil McIntyre, CEO of The Brand Gallery. “And sports is a huge content engine, so to marry that with social networking and a user experience that’s intuitive, that’s easy to use, that’s appropriate to the demographic, that’s well branded and promoted – you’re positioning yourself for success.”

McIntyre called it a landmark cross-platform campaign for The Brand Gallery. “As it hits, it will include a bunch of different deliverables – TV, cinema, online, rich media, mobile and print, “ he said.

For The Brand Gallery’s Chief Creative Officer, Iain Greenway, the essence of the project was: “how to come up with a creative campaign that has the right kind of resonance for the high school audience, and how to best target a campaign to create the most buzz within the target demographic – to take it past what I see as a very clichéd way to look at high school sports.”

That demographic includes not only the athletes and fans, but also their parents, families and friends.

“We thought a long time about how we would approach it. We felt that the primary target was the social networking aspect of the site, because it gives it a ‘coolness’ and it hits at the grass roots level,” explained Greenway.

Initially, the campaign includes four 30-second spots that will play around the news programming on Hearst-Argyles’s local stations, as well as a series of viral video elements for online distribution. “We’ve created a lot of viral elements for the campaign, which we feel is again giving the ‘hipness’ that it needs. They have this edgy sort of irreverence to them, and they’re pretty funny.”

The brand launched in seven of Hearst-Argyle’s 26 markets: Orlando; Sacramento; Pittsburgh; Baltimore; Cincinnati; Greenville/Spartanburg, SC; and Greensboro/Winston-Salem, NC.

“The design of the brand campaign drives the on-air presence. It’s a news product for sports, so when you tune to your local news station, you’ll see a sports section in each local marketplace, that will have this HighSchoolPlaybook.com wrapping around it. So we’ve created a template with this graphic branding and look for the channels to add their own logo, so it will say ‘HighSchoolPlaybook.com powered by KCRA Sacramento.’”

The web element of the campaign includes Point Roll banner ads that expand when the mouse rolls over them to deliver a rich media experience.

In addition, the sideline reporters are outfitted with branded merchandise, like T-shirts, sweatshirts, baseball caps and microphone flags. “Everything incorporates the iconography of the brand, so it’s entirely cohesive,” said Greenway.

The spots and viral elements were co-directed by Greenway, and bi-coastal (New York/LA) Streamline Content's Peter Kagan. Both The Brand Gallery and Streamline Content are repped by New York-based PGM Artists.

“There’s a new paradigm for reaching kids,” said Kagan. “For one thing, everybody’s a filmmaker. Everybody’s got a camera. Everybody’s got a cell phone that can record video. The ‘youtube-ification’ of what we do is pretty significant in the experience of every kid these days.”

The spots were shot in high definition on a tight one-day schedule at a high school in Greenwich, Conn. “We’re not layered in bureaucracy, so on the day of the shoot we were able to be very ‘run-and-gun’ effective,” said Greenway.

The spots focus on one of the “sideline reporters” trying to interview athletes while an enthusiastic face-painted fan jumps into the interview, drawing attention himself, offering his opinion, and always repeating the spots’ slogan “BOO YAH!!”

“In the sense, he’s kind of the fan that needs to get a life,” said Greenway. “He’s just ever present to the point where, of course, he kind of bugs everyone, but they tolerate him. He’s irrepressible. He’s an expert at all the sports and he knows all the stats. He even takes it upon himself to be a spokesperson on camera and steals the limelight.”

The face-painted fan is a character thread that also drives the viral elements with his comical and irreverent interjections.

The spots end with the tagline – “download, upload, network, whatever –HighSchoolPlaybook.com.” Greenway explained that, “when high school teenagers who are used to social networking sites like Facebook see this, they’ll intuitively understand what it’s about. You need to have guts to reach the younger audience.”

Overall, he reported that, “I absolutely feel we achieved what we wanted by Peter and I being on the same page with the essence or the spirit of these spots, and really developing the writing and the characters, and giving them the personality that they needed.”

Greenway explained that for clients like Hearst-Argyle, one of the key advantages of dealing with a boutique agency like The Brand Gallery, rather than a big agency is access. “We speak directly with our clients, one on one, so it’s a very satisfying experience for the client.”

McIntyre added that The Brand Gallery understands “the zeitgeist” of the new media age. “We know how to execute a smart, cross-platform campaign, and we’re able to respond in a focused fashion in both traditional and nontraditional media, for clients both big and small.”

About The Brand Gallery:
The Brand Gallery specializes in the development and implementation of positioning, presentation and promotion strategies for some of the world’s most recognized brands. Located in NYC’s West Village, The Brand Gallery was launched by partners Phil McIntyre and Iain Greenway in early 2005 as a creative boutique focusing on all aspects of screen media. The Company’s Web address is www.thebrandgallery.com.

About Hearst-Argyle:
Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc. owns 26 television stations, and manages an additional three television and two radio stations, in geographically diverse U.S. markets. The Company’s television stations reach approximately 18% of U.S. TV households, making it one of America’s largest television station groups. Hearst-Argyle owns 12 ABC-affiliated stations, and manages an additional ABC station owned by Hearst Corporation, and is the largest ABC affiliate group. The Company also owns 10 NBC affiliates, and is the second-largest NBC affiliate owner, and owns two CBS affiliates. Hearst-Argyle also is a leader in the convergence of local broadcast television and the Internet through its partnership with Internet Broadcasting, and in the application of digital broadcast spectrum for new local informational services through its Weather Plus partnership with NBC and various NBC affiliate groups. Hearst-Argyle Series A Common Stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “HTV.”

To View A Detailed Online Presentation Of The Brand Gallery’s Promo Launch Campaign for High School Playbook Click Here:

http://www.thebrandgallery.com/playbook

Posted by PGM at 04:04 PM | Permalink

A panel of experts featuring leaders in health care, online gaming, open source and branding met at the University Club in New York City on March 1, 2007. The panel included Brian Loew, CEO of ClinicaHealth, T. Ron Davis, President/CEO of Intellect Marketing Group in Redmond, WA, Michael Lobikis, Account Executive of The Brand Gallery of New York, NY, and moderator Sydney Williams, President of Lyceum Associates.

An emerging trend of online communities serving the dual purpose of building brands while giving consumers a sense of community within the brand has been in rapid development over the past few years. Why this is happening may be obvious, but how to successfully implement such a community poses a much more difficult challenge.

Colgate-Palmolive is experimenting with new ways to mine data from consumers and professionals by creating exclusive online communities. One of their most successful communities is made up of working mothers with children under 12 years of age. While mothers are sharing opinions and advice about dental care, the community has also involved into a bit of a “maternal club” where members go beyond how to get your six year-old to brush for two minutes twice a day. Other Colgate communities include groups made up of dental hygienists based in the US and internationally. Companies like Colgate that rely heavily on customer feedback are finding that online communities act as around-the-clock focus groups that can be maintained with less cost and more efficiency than traditional data gathering methods.

ClinicaHealth is revolutionizing the way patients with serious illnesses seek emotional support in this age of increasing technology. ClincaHealth’s online communities for patients suffering from diseases such as lung cancer or ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) double as a support group where patients can share advice and experiences. CEO Brian Loew explained that one of those most important things in the healing process is emotional support, “A patient recovering from a heart-attack may be told by their doctor what they might experience, but through our communities patients are able to share personal experiences of what they have actually experienced. This also leads to suggestions for rehabilitation and alternate treatments; this sense of community adds significant value to the recovery process.”

Open source coding and LINUX were also hotly debated topics during the 2-hour panel discussion. Open source software systems benefit the user in the long-run because bugs and problems can be fixed by individual users through the software coding community. This process lives in stark contrast to closed-source, proprietary software developed by Microsoft and Apple. While this type of community is significantly different than the previously mentioned groups, it is the common goal among participants that drives the success and collaborative nature of the community.

While representatives from MySpace and Facebook were not in attendance, these successful online communities were brought into the discussion when the following question arose: “What makes an online community successful?”

The answer? “It’s anyone’s guess.”

While there’s no significant formula, there are certain elements that exist in all successful communities. Often times there is community that will break ground and provide a new service, much like Friendster did in 2002, only to be taken over by juiced-up more user-friendly versions like MySpace and Facebook. At this point in time it appears that Second Life, which operates much like an MMORPG (Massive Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Game), will eventually be the “Friendster” to the next, better 3-D online community that mimics real life. The biggest hurdle for such a community is to connect the user’s “second life” to their first life, the one that really matters when they wake up in the morning. This connection is something that all successful online communities do with seamless integration, whether we’re talking about tooth paste, lung cancer, or pictures of Friday night’s party. To ask a user to create a profile, or a life, outside of their physical being and existence is the reason that Second Life has seen its active user base fall in recent months.

The common thread in all communities is the desire to express individuality and seek a common bond with other users. This applies to recovering cancer victims, LINUX programmers, over-worked mothers, and hung-over college students alike. As online communities grow and flourish, and as corporations find new ways to use these communities to grow and strengthen their brands, marketing executives will no doubt experiment with new tools, features, and other fluff to attract users. While these new gadgets and advances might attract a media buy from Madison Avenue, at the end of the day an online community must create and provide an atmosphere in which users genuinely care about one another.

Lyceum Associates is a financial research firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut. As an alternative to traditional Wall Street service, Lyceum offers interactive, full-length workshops and roundtables, which feature thought leaders from a variety of backgrounds and expertise. Lyceum comments periodically on themes relevant to investors through a monthly newsletter called Perspectives.

For more information about future panel discussions of Lyceum Associates, Inc, please contact: Sydney Williams, President Lyceum Associates, Inc http://www.lyceumassociates.com 203-542-5208.

Posted by PGM at 11:07 AM | Permalink

Broad Implications for Advertisers and Investors

GREENWICH, CT, July 26, 2006 – Warning to advertisers: if you choose the wrong
message, it’s lights out. With technology empowering greater choice in what they watch,
read and hear, consumers have become more selective with their time and money, so
that a brand owner’s choice of medium now matters less than the message he puts
forward, according to a recent roundtable hosted by Lyceum Associates, Inc., a
Greenwich-based financial research firm. A full transcript is now available.

The discussion group met at the University Club in New York City on July 18, 2006 and
included both corporate executives and institutional investors. Featured panel speakers
included Clive Chajet, chairman of Chajet Consultancy, and former chairman of
Lippincott & Margulies; Robert Hall, vice president of brand development at The Boston
Beer Company; Phil McIntyre, co-founder and chief executive officer of The Brand
Gallery and PGM Artists; and Stuart McLean, co-president of JWTwo Entertainment.

“Transparency is something that brand owners and their agencies have to factor into
their marketing strategies,” explained Sydney Williams, president of Lyceum. “If you
assume that TV, print, radio, or even a Web site will transfix your audience, you could be
making a fatal mistake. It’s the message itself that transfixes the audience, and the
association that this creates with the product.”

Focus topics covered media measurement, agency pricing strategies, and the consumer
environment for beer and beverage companies. “We considered how agencies are now
engaging the financial muscle of brands to create short-form video formats, which can
translate across multiple channels. We looked too at the increasing spend on
measurement tools such as Net Promoter.”

Mr. Williams added, “Participants responded well to how our panel aggregated diverse
expertise. We were able to feature the largest craft brewer in the US, and its experience
in brand development, and then to add to the discussion executives who have done
everything from leading one of the world’s largest image consultants to pursuing cuttingedge
screen-based branding strategies.”

Lyceum Associates is a financial research firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut. As an
alternative to traditional Wall Street service, Lyceum offers interactive, full-length
workshops and roundtables, which feature thought leaders from a variety of
backgrounds and expertise. Lyceum comments periodically on themes relevant to
investors through a monthly newsletter called Perspectives.

Contact:
Sydney Williams
Lyceum Associates, Inc.
(203) 542-5208
info@lyceumassociates.com

Posted by PGM at 04:51 PM | Permalink

Phil McIntyre, CEO of PGM Artists and Russ Potts, Chairman of Russ Potts Productions, Inc. have announced that their companies have formed a strategic partnership. Initially, PGM Artists will support Russ Potts Productions’ fundraising efforts on behalf of numerous sports-charity events: the Hispanic College Fund Basketball Classic; the Jim Thorpe Association Football and Basketball Classics; the John Thompson Foundation Football and Basketball Classics; and the Colonial Athletic Conference Basketball Classic.

Mr. Potts has held positions of Sports Marketing Director for the University of Maryland, Athletic Director for Southern Methodist University, and Vice President of the Chicago White Sox. He is a member of the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, as well as the director of numerous sports charities that raise untold millions for scholarships and athletic programs. Additionally, he serves as a Virginia State Senator.

“When it comes to sports, I’m a huge fan,” says McIntyre, “but Russ Potts is another matter.
He’s a consummate sports insider and pioneer with an amazing track record of successes and, more importantly, contributions to the world of sports. The bottom line is that Russ Potts is an amazing guy, and his company is doing important work. We’re proud to be a part of it.”

Mr. Potts feels his events can only benefit from this association with PGM Artists. “We now have access to world-class branding, marketing and promotion support for our many charitable initiatives,” says Potts. “PGM Artists is an all-star team with a very deep bench.”

Looking ahead, future endeavors between the two companies could include co-productions of long-form programming and branded entertainment, as well as web-based program initiatives. “You never know what’s around the corner,” says Mr. McIntyre. “Sports never sleeps.”

Posted by PGM at 11:28 AM | Permalink

Staffers from The Brand Gallery doubled their fun while attending the AICP Party held at the MoMA in New York. In addition to enjoying quality time with friends and colleagues from the advertising community, they took the time to soak in a very special creation by renowned New York artist Jennifer Bartlett, “Rhapsody,” which is currently on display in MoMA’s main atrium gallery.

"Rhapsody" is composed of 987 painted steel panels, each 12 x 12 inches, arranged in 142 vertical rows. It fills 153 running feet of wall space and wraps around the entire atrium. Art critics from around the world routinely describe it “groundbreaking,” “audacious,” and “mesmerizing.”

The Brand Gallery enjoys a special connection with Jennifer Bartlett because their West Village studio was previously Jennifer’s studio. Much of her work was created in their space, and several of her pieces remain there on display.

Jennifer Bartlett’s “Rhapsody” is part of MoMA’s “Against the Grain” exhibition. For more information, visit MoMa.org. Additionally, The Brand Gallery’s web site is currently featuring some of Jennifer’s work. Visit “The Gallery” section at The Brand Gallery.

Posted by PGM at 10:12 AM | Permalink

Sun Maid's Sun Maid's bonneted lady, now 90, is thinking outside the box. In TV ads, she's a digital doll strolling through vineyards.

We all know her. Her long, dark hair. Her big, red bonnet. It's the famous Sun Maid raisin girl.
For 90 years, she's been sitting quietly in our lunch boxes and in our pantries, alongside the Quaker Oats man, the Peter Pan peanut butter boy, Uncle Ben, and Tony the Tiger.

Pretty. Silent. SM has smiled kindly at us, even when we've heartlessly traded her off for a more decadent Little Debbie in the school cafeteria. A real class act.

But now, for the first time in her very long life, the beauty on the box has been granted a Pilates body, an aerobics instructor's voice, and a 30-second television spot to launch her new career as a company spokescharacter. Introduced last week, the 21st-century version of the raisin queen is a true digital dollface, tanned and toned and unmistakably going for the big-eyed Barbie, Shrek-girl, Disney-princess look. Think Sandra Bullock made of pixels, and you get the picture.

In her 30-second commercial, SM walks through a verdant valley (looking pretty darned bountiful herself in her tight, white peasant blouse) and in a vaguely seductive tone tells us that raisins are "nothing but grapes and sunshine." Mark Bagley, senior vice president for sales and marketing at Sun Maid, says the company spent about $8 million transforming their spokesgal into the computer graphic, with hopes of "really capitalizing on the iconic value of her image."

Until now, Bagley says, she has only been pictured on the front of packages. She has never actually sold the raisins inside. In other words, after 90 years of getting by on just her looks, SM has to start earning her keep.

Unlike the Pillsbury Doughboy or even Betty Crocker, the Sun Maid image is based on a real person - Lorraine Collett Petersen, a California girl who volunteered to hand out boxes of raisins at the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Petersen was asked to pose with a tray of grapes for a painting that became the company's logo in 1916.

The image was updated in 1970, when the Sun Maid's decidedly ethnic features were smoothed out and her torso was slenderized. Bagley says that 1970 image will remain on all of the company's packaging, but the new, digital SM will star in the television commercials and will appear on the company Web site, www.sunmaid.com).

Giving the raisin gal a pair of working gams, blinking eyes, and a real voice wasn't an easy decision for the suits at Sun Maid. "We began doing research about a year ago to see how the Sun Maid coming to life would resonate with consumers," Bagley says. (Would you stop eating raisins forever if her head moved? Mark "A" for "yes," "B" for "no," and "C" if you're just taking this survey to get a free box of raisins.)

Bagley says once the executives felt comfortable with the idea of a malleable SM, "we had to decide: Would we use a real actress? Could we find someone who looked exactly like the painting? "We rapidly came to the conclusion that with animation, we could control every element," he says.

Of course, it's not unusual for companies to update their character logos to better fit with modern sensibilities. Aunt Jemima lost her bandanna and her apron awhile back. The Michelin man lost his spare tire, the Green Giant looks more Brad Pitt than brussels sprout, and Betty Crocker has had more work done than Cher. In the last few years, Ronald McDonald has been made over as a health nut, and KFC's Colonel Sanders has gone hip-hop.

But in the advertising world, taking a character off a box and giving it life on the screen is a risky business, according to Brian Lanahan, managing director of Character L.L.C., a company that develops advertising icons for major brands. The Hamburger Helper hand, the animated Goldfish crackers, and the updated Mr. Clean were all created by his firm.

Get him talking about characters like the animated M&Ms, and you'd think they were dues-paying members of the Screen Actors Guild. In fact, Lanahan and others in the branding biz write entire biographies to go with their insurance lizards, cookie elves, and fabric-softener teddy bears. They decide whether the fictional figments will be sarcastic sophisticates, fun-loving free spirits, or perpetual do-gooders.

"Some characters are just meant to be a piece of iconography, like the Morton Salt girl," Lanahan says. "They don't need a story. People can essentially project whatever characteristics they want to onto them." But once they move, he adds, they're begging for depth. "There are a lot of pitfalls," Lanahan says. "You could take a huge misstep and completely sully the perception people have of the character."

Perception? Of a drawing on a box?

"When a character comes to life, they have to have a story behind them, provide some entertainment; otherwise they just become a shill, and that's a terrible thing to do to a character, to make them into nothing but a shill." Somebody please call the Energizer Bunny's lawyer.

Diana Walczak, cofounder of Synthespian Studios , the computer graphics company in Massachusetts that was responsible for SM's makeover, spent months developing storyboards for the new character.

"We decided to keep her in her environment, which is the vineyard, and to get her to tell us the message that raisins are grapes transformed by the magic of the sun," Walczak says. Dostoyevsky it's not, but the raisin people like it. Walczak admits the animated SM does look a lot like her big-screen princess counterparts, but adds that the target market for the ads are women between 25 and 44 with children ages 3 to 13 - the prime Disney princess years.

So what does Lanahan, the character builder, think of the new Sun Maid's debut performance? "In a way this one feels like a teaser," he says. "Now I want to know more. It looks like she lives in the valley of the Green Giant. My question is, what happens next?"

By Tanya Barrientos
Inquirer Staff Writer

Posted by PGM at 05:11 PM | Permalink

Broad Implications for Private and Public Market Investors

GREENWICH, CT -A brand is worth whatever the customer is willing to pay for it. But creating the kind of brand that commands premium pricing is becoming increasingly difficult in today’s crowded and image-rich marketplace, according to a recent roundtable on branding and consumer product companies hosted by Lyceum Associates, Inc., a Greenwich-based financial research firm.

The roundtable met at the University Club in New York City on March 9, 2006 and included both industry practitioners and public and private market investors. Featured panel speakers included Clive Chajet, chairman of Chajet Consultancy; Karen Ballou, founder and chief executive officer of Ballou Technologies; Richard Kronengold, formerchief marketing officer of BBDO; Phil McIntyre, founder and chief executive officer of The Brand Gallery and PGM Artists; Scott Morris, chief marketing officer of The Meow Mix Company; Bob Rose, head of media strategy at Seiter & Miller; Susan Roy, co-founder partner at Prospero; and Cory Treffiletti, engagement specialist at Carat Fusion.

“The business of branding mixes the emotional pull of the marketplace with strategic thinking,” commented Sydney Williams, president of Lyceum. “By bringing together brand owners and brand consultants, we were able to establish fundamental questions that investors need to ask when considering investment opportunities in consumer product companies.

“A critical factor, as one of our panel speakers noted, is that brands have different values under different owners. Management has to be fully engaged in the branding process,and consistent with its strategy. Anything less results in reduced pricing power, particularly given the incredible sophistication of today’s consumers.”

The conversation covered brand positioning strategies, valuation, the challenge of new media outlets, as well as the private label landscape and the disruptive potential of wordof mouth advertising.

“The discussion group referenced more than two dozen companies and several different brands, “ said Mr. Williams. “It was a discussion rich in opinion and ideas.”

Lyceum Associates is a financial research firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut. As analternative to traditional Wall Street service, Lyceum offers interactive, full-length workshops and roundtables, which feature thought leaders from a variety of backgrounds and expertise. Lyceum comments periodically on themes relevant to investors through a monthly newsletter called Perspectives.

Contact:Sydney Williams
Lyceum Associates, Inc.
(203) 540-5208
info@lyceumassociates.com

Posted by PGM at 05:24 PM | Permalink

Greenwich Time (Business)-When it comes to the exchange of information, nothing beats face-to-face conversation, particularly when discussions involve weighty topics such as business trends and investment possibilities.

Providing a venue for close interaction was the goal when the Greenwich husband-and-wife team of Sydney and Beatriz Williams started Lyceum Associates last year.

Webster's New World Dictionary describes "lyceum" as a lecture hall or an organization providing lectures -- an appropriate term for the business that develops roundtable discussions among institutional investors, economic thinkers and industry experts.

Last month, Lyceum hosted a session at the Yale Club in New York on changes in the advertising business model. The event involved advertising industry practitioners and private and public equity investors.

Lyceum's monthly Perspectives newsletter then featured ideas from the roundtable that can be put into action.

"Participants focused on the ways in which technology is cutting a broad swath across the advertising business model and radically changing consumer behavior, especially among young adults," said Sydney Williams, president of Lyceum, in his commentary about the roundtable.

"With new distribution channels appearing in every product cycle, marketers are hard-pressed to capitalize on the dizzying array of emerging opportunities," he said.

"The combination of Internet-driven technology and rising wealth has enabled consumers to hold significant sway over marketers. Consumers expect a marketing experience with customized content and delivery, fewer touch points and subtler persuasion," he said.

Williams earned a master's degree in business administration from Columbia University and spent a decade in institutional equity sales with Deutsche Bank.

The Williamses started their roundtables with a bang in June 2005 as they hosted a session featuring R. Glenn Hubbard, dean of the Columbia University Business School and former chairman of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, as the guest speaker.

The session addressed topics including health-care reform, tax reform, the direction of the economy and the energy market.

"We're trying to take participants out of their day-to-day echo chambers. At the end of the day, it's about conversation," Sydney Williams said, noting that roundtables typically include 20 to 25 participants.

One participant at last month's event was Phil McIntyre, chief executive officer of The Brand Gallery , a New York brand strategy firm, who thought the session gave participating investors much to consider.

"It raised questions for investors. Where do they put their money? People are trying to read tea leaves," McIntyre said.

"Institutional investors have moved beyond traditional research services. There's always been a lot of success in bringing the right people together," Williams said. "We're developing future roundtables to continue the conversation."

Ravenel Curry, managing director of Eagle Capital Management in New York, has attended several Lyceum roundtables.

"It's better than a one-to-one meeting because you get the benefit of hearing other people's questions. When you're in the investment business, you need to know what's going on in every area," he said.

Copyright C 2006, Southern Connecticut Newspapers,
Inc.

Getting around to business trends
By Richard Lee
Assistant Business Editor

Posted by PGM at 04:39 PM | Permalink

Interesting article in the NYTimes this morning on industry shift. Major compaines are looking for fresh ideas. You can read it in full here.

Posted by PGM Artists at 06:27 PM | Permalink