By Z

Whether you love Legos or Lincoln Logs, chances are you’ve played with building blocks. It’s practically a developmental plateau, right there with using a spoon and potty training: stacking blocks, knocking them down, stacking, knocking, and through a better understanding of the process (or sheer intuition), building a stronger foundation each time. Reaching a little higher.

If you’re a businessperson, you recognize these concepts in a different light: learning the process, following your gut, developing a strong model, reaching for the prize. And you know, from the marketing perspective, it really does start with the most basic of building blocks, not so different from those painted wooden cubes that once supported your towering dreams.

Behold: the Unique Selling Proposition.

USPs are your “elevator speech” distilled into bullet points. They define your business: what you do, how you do it, why you’re better. They’re as basic as it gets … and they’re the fulcrum at the center of everything you do, especially your marketing efforts.

Now let’s not get hung up on literal translations. A USP must not always be unique (the other guy may also promise to save customers money, but you better believe affordability is one of your USPs). And it’s not always a proposition (hence the alternate name Unique Selling Point). But a USP is always a vow, a pledge promising ultimate customer satisfaction. Whether you have two or five, USPs are your pitch, your value, your word, your reputation. They are you.

And they’re never as easy as you think.

“Developing USPs is often the hardest thing a business owner has to do,” notes New Media President Michael Kitakis. “It forces people to strip away the fluff and really define their company or service. It’s not easy, but it’s critical to branding efforts. Whether you’re a pizzeria or a $20 million company, if you can’t define the three, four, five things that set you apart, you can’t explain why customers should pick you instead of your competition.”

Michael is quick to point out that individual USPs are not always “unique,” but they “always reflect a business philosophy,” and even the ones that aren’t unique – cost-savings, perhaps – will “become part of your unique branding strategy.”

“You claim to save customers money, your competition claims to save customers money,” he says. “But only you save them money and deliver a product that’s faster, cleaner, beefier, etc. The customer might like beefier, but maybe not so much that he’s willing to pay more. So one of your USPs has to be ‘low price,’ even if your competition says the same thing.

“Taken together, this overall philosophy – better and affordable – is what sets your company apart,” he adds.

Right now, New Media is knee-deep into USP development with two exciting new clients – efficiency expert Energy Kinetics and elder-care specialist Assisted Living at Home – as first steps on long (we hope!) marketing journeys. A purveyor of super-advanced, fuel-neutral heating-system optimizers and an elite provider of home-based care are pretty far apart on the practical application scale, but New Media’s mission for both is identical: Cut through the clutter and define who they are, what they do, how they do it and why they’re better.

“It can take some time, especially helping clients understand that USPs work best as broad-stroke themes and don’t have to be hard-and-fast definitions of products and services,” Michael says. “The tendency for clients is to want to cram every fact they can into each USP. We have to show them that USPs are ideas to be referenced and fleshed out later, on websites, in commercials, etc.

“It’s worth the effort,” he adds. “When we finally nail the USPs, they really become the building blocks of everything that follows. As long as they’re strong, whatever you build with them will be strong.”

By Z

One of our most exciting clients is Suzanne Hand & Associates, the eminent court-reporting agency.

There’s a steely cool about court reporting … Bondian, really, with the intrigue and the gadgets and the girls (as Suzanne told me this week, court reporting remains an overwhelmingly female industry). But it’s not truth, justice or American ways that make Suzanne Hand & Associates super; it’s Suzanne and her staff, as dynamic a bunch of professionals as you’ll find.

Suzanne, who specializes in awesome and injects that mindset into every metaphorical inch of her business, is always on about something. It’s exhilarating. To stay on top, she stays ahead of the latest techniques and technologies. To ensure quality, she stresses the continuing education of her reporter corps. To fortify the future, she runs Long Island’s best intern-reporter training program. To keep her mind and body sharp, she conquers 50-mile bicycle tours. And when these challenges aren’t enough, she concocts entire corporations out of thin air — the way she tapped a decade of video-conferencing experience to launch her new Video Connect service.

For a marketing and communications firm like New Media — hungry for multimedia challenges — it gets no better. We’ve worked closely with this invigorating client on a top-to-bottom marketing overhaul, starting with fresh and well-organized USPs (Unique Service Propositions, the things that make Suzanne Hand & Associates special and the reference points for the entire marketing project) and a lengthy photo shoot at Hand HQ.

We tweaked the classic Hand logo and wrote a clever new tagline, then fashioned a logo and tag for Video Connect. We printed up new Suzanne Hand & Associates desk calendars and executed striking print ads for multiple trade publications. We created two new websites — a revised digital domain for the court-reporting business and a shiny portal into Video Connect — and hatched the new Suzanne Hand & Associates blog. We even established the company’s new Social Media network and executed a winning electronic newsletter campaign, targeting a “clean“ email list of existing and future clients.

“Everyone at New Media is really on it,” Suzanne says. “I’m so impressed — the communication is amazing.”

Along with that communication, Suzanne adds, comes savvy — a smart strategy that synchronizes message and presentation to meet the needs of Suzanne’s various enterprises.

“We work around the plan and it’s always there, but it’s also flexible, and can change as our needs change,” she notes.

“This account has been challenging,” admits New Media President Michael Kitakis. “It’s crossed several media and kept us busy. And Suzanne’s companies have very exacting standards that must be met — in their industry, professional reputation is everything.

“But accuracy and attention to detail are our trademarks, too,” Michael adds. “And executing multimedia platforms is the name of the game in twenty-first century marketing. We’re extremely proud of our work for Suzanne Hand & Associates — some of our best work, really.”

Suzanne is, of course, already hard at work on The Next Big Thing. She’s keeping it under wraps — a smart businesswoman, she’ll tell you, never shows her cards — but already New Media is smacking its proverbial lips with anticipation. Michael hopes to enrich Suzanne Hand & Associate’s Relationship Marketing efforts — constructing of a virtual world of communication and information around the Hand brand — but whatever Suzanne wants, New Media stands ready.

“Can’t wait to find out,” Michael says.

Whatever it is, Suzanne already knows where she’ll turn for marketing help.

“New Media is full of nice, smart people who take time to understand what you want and then go do it,” she says. “I really feel like my account matters.”

By Z

It’s nearly summer, which is of course amusement park season, which means more Great Adventure TV commercials, which means suffering that creepy old dancer with the bald head and the ridiculous Kim Jong Il glasses, which is all just a stream of consciousness started by that clever headline up there. What we’re really thinking about is integration.

New Media is big on integration. The synchronization of message and method. Anyone can slap a slogan on a bumper sticker; we fancy a deeper marketing approach, an understanding of product and audience and a targeted response that intrigues and inspires.

Alas, we cannot do it alone. An all-point, fully synchronized marketing program requires more than any single agency can offer, unless you’re cool with smoke-and-mirrors. So New Media partners with some of the most creative and productive minds in the communications business: an all-access, all-complementary professional alliance that delivers an unprecedented range of services to a widening customer base.

Not to toot too loudly, but it’s brilliant business: By teaming with Emerge Sales, Naz Creative, Software Reproduction Technologies and Trade Show Solution Center, New Media offers clients a wider range of professional-grade services — enriching, completely integrated marketing programs that knock the socks off any mere advertising campaign. And each of our partner companies does the same. Sweet.

Now, our alliance is taking that integration to yet another level. After nearly two decades in Manhattan, SRT is relocating its corporate headquarters to Islandia — into the same corporate plaza already hosting Emerge HQ and the New Media mothership.

The resulting stronghold of sales, marketing and multimedia expertise is unique on Long Island — and a massive boost to all three companies.

“Ever since we formed the alliance with our four partners, we’re been working more and more closely on all kinds of projects,” notes New Media President Michael Kitakis. “We’ve really been cooking with Emerge since they moved in, and I can only imagine the brainstorming and increased productivity with SRT literally across the hall.”

SRT — which specializes in multimedia designs and produces exciting physical media to distribute messages in digital spaces, including DVDs, CDs and flash drives — feels exactly the same.

“We’re excited about the opportunity to work more closely with New Media on marketing initiatives,” says Olof Wadehn, SRT’s executive vice president. “You really need to have that integrated marketing approach these days, because a single-shot approach just won’t do. By combining our services with New Media’s specialized content and other services, we can really drive a message home, to specific audiences ready to hear it.”

While jazzed about the next-suite access to both New Media’s marketing expertise and Emerge’s tough-love training and sales skills, Olof is quick to note it’s the strategic alliance as a whole offering the all-encompassing synchronicity demanded by today’s marketplace.

“We all have complementary services that are proven to help grow businesses,” Olof notes. “We each fill a piece of the puzzle.”

The Summer of Synchronicity kicks off the first week of June, when SRT is expected to flip the switch in Islandia. Check back for more updates, or make plans to come visit and experience the “integrate adventure” firsthand. Everyone’s invited … except the creepy Great Adventure guy.

This is both a figurative and literal truth: Through our exclusive corporate alliance, we’re thrilled to share our services with Emerge’s clients and to offer Emerge’s services to ours. And it’s always exciting having Emerge as our next-door neighbor here in Islandia, with a convenient corridor connecting our worlds.

One of the reasons cohabitating with Emerge is such a kick is its fearless leader, CEO Michael Sperduti. He’s a trip, man — smart, funny, warm and loud, and not always in that order. An encyclopedia of business knowledge wrapped in Hawaiian shirts, a speaker whose voice moves like daylight from butterscotch-smooth-radio-host to bombastic barroom raconteur, this is a guy who takes every call, brings his cake-baking mom to work each day and tells Fortune 100 managers where it‘s at. The smart ones listen.

Sperduti, his longtime partner Bill Klein (costar of the TLC reality program “The Little Couple” with his wife, Dr. Jen Arnold) and the rest of the superstar Emerge staff produce a regular blog called More Sales Period. It’s chock-full of superior business advice, a must-read for anyone who sells anything. The latest post caught our eye here at the mothership, because it’s exactly the kind of advice we try to share with our clients: up-front, real-life and focused, with a specific action plan to boot.

As usual, Sperduti’s dead-on with this one. Check it out. And let us know if any of it sounds familiar to you.

By Z

(OK, besides being a worthy headline for our second straight post about the importance of marketing synchronicity, that’s a clear reference to 1980s pop culture … 10 points to anyone who can identify it WITHOUT GOOGLING.)

So last time, we told you all about the need for synchronicity in marketing programs, how all things are related (or should be) when it comes to connecting with your target audience. Michael K., New Media’s fearless leader and bona fide re-inventor of the wheel, explained how it all starts with your  unique message and then spins into a whirlwind of targeted communications programs — websites, blogs, electronic newsletters, Social Media networks and even traditional advertising, all focused on spreading your word among listeners eager to hear it.

Like any good plan (especially one proposed by professional communicators) it sounds great on paper. But how about some practical application? Does it work? Where’s the beef?

Exhibit A: Hassett of Wantagh, Long Island’s No. 1 dealer of Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles (volume-wise), which also deals in Subarus and does so quite well. Back in February, working closely with New Media, Hassett came up with a rather brainy promotion: the Ski Hassett Subaru event, wherein purchasers of new Subaru vehicles would receive free ski-lift tickets for a winter adventure on Pennsylvania’s Shawnee Mountain.

It really was clever: Hassett needed an event to repel the Winter Sales Blues; four-wheel-drive Subarus are promoted directly to rugged, outdoorsy types; and the smart businesspeople at Shawnee Mountain were keen from the start, even sending colorful brochures and posters to stir interest. The entire idea, really, was a heaping slice of synchronicity.

Ah, but, if you concoct an awesome promotion and nobody hears about it, does it really make a dent? No, and so New Media synchronized for Hassett a four-point marketing plan designed specifically to attract people most likely to respond.

First, riding the greased rails of an optimized email list stocked with willing auto enthusiasts, New Media crafted a colorful and informative electronic advertisement announcing Ski Hassett Subaru. Next, we published a detailed post on the Hassett Highlights blog further pumping the promotion; that post premiered alongside a new “mod” (that’s techspeak  for “link”) we programmed on the Hassett Automotive homepage, sending clickers to a bold and exciting Ski Hassett ad. Rounding out these digitized selections was a little old-school print-work: we drew up and executed a full-color, eye-catching newspaper advertisement filled with dates and other important details.

A solid plan, starting with a specific message and ultimately reinforcing it with a specific audience. But … did it work?

When it comes to programs like this, the proof is in the ROI. If the Return on Investment is there, it worked. If the return comes up short, it didn’t. In this case, the dealership would have covered its bets, and then some, by selling just two cars during the Ski Hassett Subaru event. It sold four.

“It was very nice, having everything work like that,” says John Fanuzzi, Hassett’s Subaru manager. “We had the blog, and we had the email go out, and we had an ad in the paper that weekend, too. It really came together. I don’t know if you can say all four sales are directly related, but [the synchronized marketing program] clearly had an effect.”

“The way New Media set it up was nice,” Mr. Fanuzzi adds. “I think you have to have that kind of cross-promotion … maybe radio alone isn’t as effective these days, but you don’t want to have just the email, either.”

“This wasn’t a total package, because it didn’t have a real Social Media emphasis,” Michael notes. “But it’s a good example of how synchronicity in your marketing efforts drives the whole process.

“The days of recording a 15-second radio spot or running the same ad again and again in the weekly paper are over,” he notes. “You can still do those things, and there’s still an audience for them. But you’ve got to include modern communication tools like blogs and email marketing, and it all has to revolve around a single message. That’s how you reach your audience. That’s how you reach your goals.”

By Z

All things are connected: Like most truisms in the world, it’s a fairly simple concept. So when New Media honcho Michael Kitakis discusses his steadfast belief in “synchronicity” in marketing programs, he’s not exactly reinventing the wheel.

Actually, scratch that: Reinventing the wheel is exactly what Mike’s done.

See that chart up there? That’s lifted directly from Mike’s groundbreaking webinar presentation, “Stop Advertising and Start Marketing,“ which ran twice earlier this year (the second by popular demand). There it is, in a little circular nutshell: The irrefutable relationship between all facets of a corporate communications program.

That middle part is whatever you’re trying to tell your audience. It’s your message, the one thing (or multiple things) you can do that nobody else can, at least not as well as you. You sell cars, you renovate bathrooms, you offer retirement-plan solutions, you optimize furnaces … you have the best prices or the fastest service … whatever you do and however you do it, you have to have that unique message. Everything starts with it, revolves around it, comes back to it.

Let’s say you just invented sliced bread. Congratulations, this is a massive innovation that will turn the carb-consuming populace on its ear … if it catches on. You can hope that quarter-page ad in Sandwich Week magazine does the trick, or you can roll the dice on some word-of-mouth advertising (“Dude, you still slice your own bread?!”) … or you can proactively market your product with a synchronized program designed to rocket you to the top.

Sounds hard. But it’s not. It’s a truism, remember? So it’s simple:

1. Invent sliced bread.

2. Post a story about inventing sliced bread on your new website, with a nice photo of your chief slicer at work.

3. Send an email burst promoting the story to your optimized list of eager and willing bread enthusiasts.

4. Optimize your search-engine options, maximizing the chances that when someone Googles “sliced bread,” they’ll find your site.

5. Create a sliced-bread blog that a) Doubles your chances of being Googled; b) Increases the sliced-bread buzz; and c) Ultimately drives more traffic to your website. (First post: “What’s Your Favorite Bread to Slice?”)

6. Open Twitter, Facebook and other Social Media accounts promoting sliced bread, including incentives like “come to my website for a chance to win free sliced bread” or “come to my bakery for a free slice.”

7. Post a YouTube video showcasing your patented bread-slicing process.

Voila! You have created a fully synchronized, completely focused communications program that effectively markets your product and, best of all, connects you directly with people interested in what you have to sell.

This is a slightly simplified example, of course. Unless you hire an agency experienced in creating such programs — optimizing that email list, for instance — it’s not quite this easy. But it’s hardly rocket science, either, and it’s critical.

“This is where it’s at,” Mike notes. “Packaging complete marketing programs like this, starting with the central message and including all these aspects, is how successful communications are done now. If you miss even a single spoke on that wheel, you’re going to wind up spinning your wheels, so to speak … and there’s a good chance your breakthrough product or fantastic service will be stuck in neutral.”

The New Media website is chock full of examples of successful synchronicity across numerous industries. Check them out — and click back here regularly for more simple-yet-so-freakin’-important tips on effectively communicating your singular message to modern audiences.

Gersh Academy's shiny new online home (above), courtesy of New Media Marketing. Emerge Sales and Wales Darby's new home pages (below) each combine sharp visuals and critical direct-response content.

By Z

When LKGS Marketing changed its name to New Media Marketing & Communications, the bosses weren’t just clearing their throats. You don’t dump a decade-plus of successful name recognition on a whim.

The company was making a statement and delivering two critical messages: Marketing has changed forever. And we’re on top of it.

What had changed since LKGS hung that first shingle? Simple: The world went digital and marketing went with it. Advertising and communications landscapes were permanently altered by the Internet and other advancing technologies, and LKGS wanted clients old and new to know it was out in front.

The company’s principals had spent the previous decade not only sharpening their marketing skills and producing fantastic work, but also studying the future. When the Digital Age began, the company was well versed in the new language of marketing – and knew how to adapt quickly in this dynamic realm.

Websites, blogs, email marketing, digital signage … it was a brave new communications world. The dominance of traditional marketing efforts – print, radio spots, etc. – was over. Such old-school approaches wouldn’t completely disappear, but by the early days of this century, if your company didn’t have a website, you were lost.

Everyone has a website now. But there’s a universe of difference between a website and a good website, between some token Internet pages and an effective marketing tool producing quantifiable results. This is where New Media’s knowledge really pay off, whether creating a website from scratch or optimizing an older one.

As part of his recent webinar presentation “Stop Advertising and Start Marketing,” New Media President Michael Kitakis discussed several key steps to producing a winning website. It starts, Mike notes, with integrating a company’s message into the fabric of its site.

“All the bells and whistles in the world can’t save a site that fumbles the company’s basic message,” he says. “Whatever your message is – we’re the fastest, most affordable, beefiest, whatever – it has to be there, throughout the planning and execution.”

Proper planning starts with a sitemap that outlines the website’s content. This is critical to the process, Mike notes: Serious thought must go into the map and designers must stick to it, lest their new website fly off the virtual rails.

That means careful plotting of content. A successful site, Mike notes, will include everything a customer needs – information, products, prices, visuals, testimonials, everything – to decide a product or service bests the competition’s.

“It’s a simple idea: Be a resource for your customers,” Mike adds. “Capture their attention and then bury them in information that answers all their questions – even the ones they haven’t thought of yet.”

Successful sites must also meet current 2.0 standards – descriptive title tags, for instance, plus metadata management that makes them stand out in a competitive crowd. And designers must always seek and employ direct-response opportunities: Sites have scant seconds to win the hearts and minds of potential customers, so they must overflow with reasons to stay.

“A website is like every other winning marketing initiative: clear message, attractive visuals, smart organization and perceived benefits speaking directly to the audience,” Mike says. “The difference is, today’s website is a company’s introduction to potential clients about 80 percent of the time. You can’t take chances with this essential marketing tool.”

For more idea on building a better website and further samples of New Media’s digital expertise, check out our website development portfolio. Happy surfing!

New Media President Michael Kitakis runs the "Stop Advertising, Start Marketing" webinar.

By Z

There’s this guy. Let’s call him something generic. Like, I dunno … Sperduti.

Sperduti’s got something to say. It’s important. All about the art of the cold call, the language of lead generation, the secrets of closing the deal. Stuff your sales division in Sheboygan needs to hear. And your marketing team in Islandia. And your customer service department in Pine Bluff, not to mention the board of directors in Albuquerque.

Hmmm. That sucks. Sperduti’s the most effective communicator since Gandhi and he’s got the goods, but you ain’t shutting down operations for two days to bring forty-eight people from four cities to some remote auditorium. And you ain’t flying Sperduti all over the country, not in this economy. This ain’t no George Clooney movie.

Behold, the webinar, the most important business development since the gelatin duplicator. With nothing more technical than a phone and an Internet connection, webinars connect remote locales in a sort of closed-circuit, collaborative web conference, facilitating instruction and discussion without the mess or expense of travel. It’s like having Sheboygan, Albuquerque and Sperduti sitting on your desk!

This would be a good time to note that Sperduti is a real guy – he’s Michael Sperduti, president of Emerge Sales and one of New Media’s very best friends. In addition to being a consultant and coach with a national reputation for sales savvy, Sperduti is the lord of the webinar: He’s conducted hundreds of online conferences, chatting up and training thousands of employees on more topics than he can remember.

“It’s all about two things: knowledge and convenience,” he says. “How can your employees gain critical knowledge without interfering with productivity or creating an unmanageable expense?”

Webinars – which combine conference calls with and online audio/video presentations – meet those criteria, with the added bonus of interactivity. Participants ask questions and get real-time answers, often stimulating discussions that would never happen if employees, say, visited a static website or read a how-to manual.

“It’s a crucial extra dimension,” Sperduti notes. “Whether you’re discussing a new product, strategy or territory, no matter how thorough a presentation you prepare, as a presenter, there are always questions you didn’t anticipate, and as an audience, there are always extra facts you need to know. Being able to ask questions and hear answers when it’s all fresh in your mind is important.

“Even if you’re listening to a recorded webinar, this pays off,” he adds. “Just listening to others ask follow-up questions gets you deeper into the educational process. And a lot of times, they ask exactly what you’re thinking.”

Recognizing the importance of this evolving business tool, New Media was pleased to partner with Emerge on the Business Growth Series, one of the most elaborate business-building webinar series ever. Combining experts in several IT and communications fields – marketing, trade shows, data storage and web promotions – under Emerge’s national umbrella, each monthly installment delivers powerful lessons and a no-limits Q&A on successful business communications.

“The Business Growth Series has really taken off,” notes Michael Kitakis, New Media’s chief executive, who teamed with Sperduti for two sessions (the second by popular demand) of his Business Growth installment, titled “Stop Advertising and Start Marketing.”

“We honed some important messages, delivered them to receptive audiences and topped it off with some informative question-and-answer sessions,” Michael says. “We had participants from so many different industries, from all over the country … you could really see how webinars have become indispensable, and how they could apply to the internal needs of individual companies.”

Several more installments of the Business Growth Series are on the way, including a March 12 presentation on multimedia-driven sales and subsequent chapters covering topics like search-engine optimization. And Emerge, as always, will continue developing its own webinar content, as well as synchronous programs for numerous national clients.

“It’s really the next level,” Sperduti says. “Add a little music and flash to your hardcore, business-driven content, and you have a perfect model for training and instruction, for brainstorming, for interconnectivity. You have the future of professional web-based communications. And the best part is, the hardware is already in your office.”

By Z

Do you e?

You should e. Really. It’s an e-for-all out there. The big guys e. Your competition? Boy howdy, huge e. Your customers? They e. Your whole industry is probably rife with e.

Email marketing has become a critical tool in 21st century markets, helping businesses engage customers in relationships extending beyond the typical sales transaction. That’s how marketing trumps traditional advertising — deeper buyer-seller connections — and in today’s webbed-up world, digital newsletters and other e-marketing tools are key.

This was one of the lessons of “Stop Advertising and Start Marketing,” New Media’s contribution to the Emerge Business Growth Series, one of the most ambitious business-building webinar series ever. Combining experts in several critical fields – marketing, trade shows, data storage and Internet-based promotions – under the umbrella of a national sales and training leader, the monthly webinar series invites online participants behind the curtain for a no-holds-barred Q&A on successful business communications, now and in the future.

Hosted by New Media President Michael Kitakis, January’s “Stop Advertising” session proved popular enough for a curtain call. In both the original webinar and this week’s well-attended encore, Mike stressed the look, hook and feel of modern marketing and branding efforts — and trumpeted email marketing as a critical cornerstone.

According to Mike, it starts with a clean database: A professionally filtered list of contacts eager to hear what your company has to say.

“Before developing your creative email, you have to set up the database,” he says. “There are a lot of professional email houses out there that can help, like Constant Contact and Cheetahmail.”

In addition to demonstrating your company’s unique expertise and beaming your company’s call to action directly to the inboxes of this willing audience, your email campaign can also serve as an invitation to your Social Media network — your Facebook, MySpace and Twitter accounts, which according to Mike are just as critical in today’s digitized environment.

“Papa John’s Pizza used email to invite customers into its March Madness NCAA Tournament promotion last spring,” Mike notes. “Consumers could fill out little tournament brackets and post them on Papa John’s Facebook page. The company added 45,000 Facebook fans through that single promotion. And that’s a professionally prepared Facebook page — strategically designed, from a business perspective, to sell.

“Can we completely quantify how many pizzas they sold because of that?” Mike adds. “Not yet. But we can say this for certain: It’s way, way, way more pizzas than they would have sold without it.”

The Business Growth Series is moving on to new and exciting topics. This month, Trade Show Solutions Center presented “Ten Strategies For Trade Show Success,” and up next is “What is Multimedia? And How it Drives Sales” (March 12) by Software Reproduction Technologies. In the works are informative and entertaining lessons on search-engine optimization from Naz Creative in April and more rock-solid sales advice from Emerge Sales in May.

But the e-lessons continue, in perpetuity, here on the Power of New Media blog and at the New Media mothership. Drop us a line to tell us your e-story, or for more, see our shiny new home page. E ya!

THAT'S HOLLYWOOD: On the set of Nicolock's new direct-response TV commercial.

By Z

So, OK … it’s not “Godfather II.” It’s not even “Weekend at Bernie’s II.” But that hasn’t lessened the excitement in Bohemia, where production is under way on Nicolock Paving Stones and Retaining Walls’ second-ever direct-response television commercial.

After the success of its first 60-second direct-response ad, which graced local airwaves last summer, Nicolock decided to produce a minute-long sequel for the 2010 backyard-barbecue season – and once again called on New Media to make it happen. New Media, of course, was only too happy to get its Spielberg on and produce the latest chapter in the Nicolock paving-stone saga.

“We’ve spent a lot of time getting good at website design, electronic newsletters and other forms of digital communications,” says Chris Graz, New Media chief operating officer and creative engine. “But really, there’s nothing as fun and exciting as shooting a television commercial.”

Graz has been on-site most of this week, overseeing production inside the Bohemia studies of longtime New Media ally Pro Image Group. Among other production-related duties, Graz has helped Pro Image build separate “before” and “after” sets, showing a home with a dilapidated cement patio – and then the same home with a patio constructed of shiny new pavers made with Nicolock’s exclusive Paver-Shield technology.

Building the sets has given Graz hands-on experience with Paver-Shield and really reaffirmed the Nicolock difference. “You really see what they mean, with the color going through the entire brick, instead of just a layer of color on top of a pale brick,” he says. “You can see why Nicolock’s pavers look new so much longer.”

This newest advertisement includes similar direct-response content as the original – free home-ideas catalogues, free home-design software and access to both easy financing and lists of qualified Nicolock installers, plus information on Nicolock’s lifetime warranty and exclusive installation rebates. But according to Graz, the new commercial is “more educational” than its predecessor, with characters (a contractor and two homeowners) discussing the Nicolock difference and also addressing the audience directly.

“It’s more of a before-and-after approach,” Graz says. “Along with the dialogue between the characters, this is a great way to show what makes Nicolock different.”

Graz, who made a cameo appearance in last year’s Nicolock spot (playing a satisfied homeowner), won’t be in this commercial, but he’ll be just as excited as everyone at Nicolock when it hits the airwaves. While the spot’s official media reach and release date are still being negotiated, expectations are the ad will start playing this spring on screens throughout New York, New Jersey and Connecticut – the heart of Nicolock’s market.

In the meantime, keep an eye on New Media’s homepage for behind-the-scenes videos from the shoot.

“It really is a kick, being on the set and producing quality work for a longtime client and friend,” Graz says. “All the digital and electronic services New Media provides are exciting and important to modern business, but sometimes, there’s no school like the old school.”