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Seattle Native Offers Travel Tips By Ann Romeo DAM Member Ah, Seattle in June. As a native, I can tell you to be prepared for rain, cold, sun and good times. Wear walking shoes and bring a sweater. You’ll see the sun eventually, as it usually pops out about 4 p.m., and due to our latitude, it will be light until late evening. Getting Around A few words about walking and traveling in downtown Seattle. First, we have HILLS. Big bad ones (Seattleites are famous for not wearing heels. If you had to walk downtown, you would understand why). When you need to go east and west, ride the bus (they are free in the zone between Jackson and Virginia streets). North and south walking is not a problem, but the east and west hills are killers. Second, it takes a good 20 to 30 minutes to walk from Pike and Fifth to First and Cherry (Pioneer Square) during working hours. My favorite street for walking north and south is First Avenue. It borders the Pike Place Market and SAM art museum and takes you to Pioneer Square. Finally, here is a quick way to remember the key streets of downtown Seattle: “Jesus Christ Made Seattle Under Protest”—from south to north that’s Jackson, James, Cherry, Columbia, Marion, Madison, Spring, Seneca, University, Union, Pike and Pine.
Things to Do With the prelims out of the way, here are a few things to do while you are in town. As the conference begins, the city will be in the last throes of the Seattle International Film Festival at http://www.siff.net (part of which will be taking place within a few blocks of the Washington State Convention and Trade Center). At the end of the conference, on June 21 there is the Fremont Solstice Parade at http://fremontartscouncil.org/events_solstice.html (which often occurs on a day when the sun doesn’t make a real appearance). Both the Seattle Mariners at http://seattle.mariners.mlb.com and the Storm (our wonderful women’s basketball team) at http://www.wnba.com/storm will be in town. Music I’m a huge fan of live music and have sampled a variety of Seattle’s musical emporiums. Tula’s, 2214 Second Ave., at http://www.tulas.com is a nice place for jazz (less pricey than the more upscale Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley, 2033 Sixth Ave., at http://www.jazzalley.com). Sit at the bar for the best view of the band. Another good place to catch a bite to eat and hear music is the The Triple Door, 216 Union St., at http://www.thetripledoor.net. Associated with one of Seattle’s best restaurants, Wild Ginger at http://www.wildginger.net, TTD is a treat—a great sound system and an intimate concert setting that allows you to eat good food and sample a huge wine list. Very civilized and highly recommended. If more modern sounds float your boat, check out my other three favorite venues: Showbox at the Market, 1426 First Ave., at http://www.showboxonline.com; Showbox SoDo (south of downtown), 1700 First Ave. South, at http://www.showboxonline.com; and Neumo’s (on Capitol Hill), 925 E. Pike St., at http://www.neumos.com. These places are where the “kids” are (but at a recent Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings concert, there were as many my age as 20-year-olds). Go early to nab a seat. At Neumo’s, head upstairs and stake your place on the rail. At the Showboxes, there is limited seating in the upper areas. Food is available and all the venues have open bars. Also visit the scene in Pioneer Square where along First Avenue there are a series of big bars with live music (blues, rock and jazz). Then there is Benaroya Hall, 200 University St., at http://www.seattlesymphony.org/benaroya and the Opera House (in the Seattle Center), 363 Mercer St., for classical and more formal concerts. Half-price tickets to theater and concerts can be purchased at the booth near the foot of the big clock at the Pike Place Market. Grab a free copy of Seattle Weekly at http://www.seattleweekly.com/ or The Stranger at http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Home to see what’s playing, and GO! Food In terms of food, there are some things Seattle does really well, and other things … well, we don’t. Don’t expect good deli, however, we do specialize in fresh fish and Asian cuisine, and there are several wonderful spots to eat, drink and soak up the city. I recommend all of Tom Douglas’s joints. My favorite is Etta’s Seafood, 2020 Western Ave., at http://www.tomdouglas.com/ettas/index.html. Both the Dahlia Lounge, 2001 Fourth Ave., at http://www.tomdouglas.com/dahlia/index.html and the adjoining Dahlia Bakery at http://www.tomdouglas.com/bakery/index.html are quite nice and within walking distance of the conference. If you are in the mood for a good burger, a beer and a bit of neighborhood color, check out long-time Seattle favorite Two Bells Bar & Grill, 2313 Fourth Ave., at http://www.thetwobells.com. And excellent Italian can be had at Assaggio Ristorante, 2010 Fourth Ave., at http://www.assaggioseattle.com. On Second Avenue between Bell and Blanchard streets is a string of restaurants and music spots that are always buzzing at night. Mama’s Mexican Kitchen, 2234 Second Ave., at http://www.mamas.com may not be gourmet, but it gives great value for the money—huge servings and usually big crowds. The Metropolitan Grill (“The Met”), 820 Second Ave., at http://www.themetropolitangrill.com is our local and excellent steak house. Pioneer Square Pioneer Square at http://www.pioneersquare.org, Seattle’s oldest part of town, is a great place to spend a few hours, especially if you plan on taking in a Mariner’s game. Destination locations include Seattle’s largest independent bookstore Elliott Bay Book Co., 101 S. Main St., at http://www.elliottbaybook.com with a nice café in the basement. And Caffé Umbria, 320 Occidental Ave. South, at http://www.caffeumbria.com is one of Seattle’s best places to get a cup of coffee. You can get reasonable Italian at Trattoria Mitchelli, 84 Yesler Way, at http://mitchellis.com, eat at Seattle’s oldest restaurant at Merchant’s Cafe, 109 Yesler Way, and buy really cheap and big sandwiches at Bakeman’s,122 Cherry St. There’s a classic toy store, Magic Mouse Toys, 603 First Ave., and Seattle Mystery Bookshop, 117 Cherry St., at http://www.seattlemystery.com. Tell Tammy hi from me. And Bud’s Jazz Records, 102 S. Jackson St., is a fine place for music. Armandino’s Salumi (Mario Batali’s dad), 309 Third Ave. South, at http://www.salumicuredmeats.com features world-class salamis and hand-cured meats. Plan on takeout (the shop has small in-house dining) and the place closes early. Pioneer Square is best known for its art galleries, especially Asian art, and glass is king. Check out Glasshouse Studio, 311 Occidental Ave South, at http://www.glasshouse-studio.com where you can see demonstrations of glassblowing, and the Foster/White Gallery, 220 Third Ave. South, at http://www.fosterwhite.com, which features work by local favorites, including Dale Chihuly. Visit two of my favorite little spaces in Seattle. Waterfall Garden Park, a tiny, brick pocket park built by UPS (which started in Seattle), is a unique place to sip a cup and reflect. It’s on the northwest corner of Second Avenue South and South Main Street. And if you are into American history, stop by the Klondike Gold Rush National Park, 117 Main St., at http://www.nps.gov/klse. It’s a wonderful step back to the turn of the century, with exhibits documenting the trials and glory of the Alaska Gold Rush, an event extremely important to the growth of Seattle. Seattle has a small Chinatown-International District or “ID” at http://www.seattle.gov/tour/id.htm with excellent food and shopping. Check out Uwajimaya’s, 600 Fifth Ave. South, at http://www.uwajimaya.com. It’s a huge Japanese shopping emporium with everything from exotic veggies to Japanese teas, from fans and anime, to a fun food court with a huge variety of Asian cuisine. This is a good spot to get interesting souvenirs. Speaking of souvenirs, if you like old-fashioned oddities and trinkets, totally NOT mall shopping, check out the Ye Olde Curiosity Shop,1001 Alaskan Way, at http://www.yeoldecuriosityshop.com. This place is GREAT! Another spot for unusual shopping is the not-to-be-missed Archie McPhee, 2428 NW Market St., in the Ballard district of Seattle at http://www.mcphee.com. You need to take a bus (routes #17 or #18 from downtown) or take a cab. If you make this trip, continue to the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks at http://www.seattle.gov/tour/locks.htm, a wonderful place to walk, watch salmon climb fish ladders and learn more about the lake system’s importance to the development of Seattle. More Culture I imagine all will visit the new Seattle Central Library, 1000 Fourth Ave., at http://www.spl.lib.wa.us. Designed by Rem Koolhaas, the new library is amazing, and well worth the walk. I love this building, and while I understand it has a few functional problems, it is a huge source of civic pride and delight. Seattle’s key art museum is the SAM, 1300 First Ave., at http://www.seattleartmuseum.org (you figure out the name). The recently renovated SAM has a vastly expanded collection. Starting June 19, an Impressionism exhibit will open and should be a hit. If the weather turns nice, I strongly recommend you take a walk and tour the new Olympic Sculpture Park, 2901 Western Ave., at http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/visit/OSP. I’ve been a few times and love this space. It is a well-designed outdoor museum with interesting pieces (especially Richard Serra’s Wake) that change with the seasons as the wild flowers and grasses wax and wane. Don’t miss the fountain at the end of the walk. There is a story behind it, of course. The benefactor, a wealthy gay man active in Seattle’s civic and arts community, donated the money for the work with the condition that it be spent to erect a statue of a male nude. The result is Father and Son, a poignant representation of a father and son who only see each other at the top of the hour; the remaining time one or the other is hidden by a curtain of water. While on your way to the Sculpture Park, be a native and stop at Macrina Bakery Cafe, 2408 First Ave., at http://www.macrinabakery.com/cafes/belltown/index.html and have a coffee and a great pastry. There is much more to recommend about Seattle: Green Lake Park at http://www.seattle.gov/Parks/park_detail.asp?id=307 for jogging, the U District at http://www.udistrictchamber.org and Volunteer Park on Capitol Hill at http://www.seattle.gov/parks/park_detail.asp?ID=399 (for great Asian art and a grand view of the city). Further afield, you might want to see the Museum of Flight, 9404 E. Marginal Way South, at http://www.museumofflight.org; tour Boeing at http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/aboutus/tours; check out Chateau Ste Michelle Winery in Woodinville at http://www.ste-michelle.com; or ride a ferry at http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries to Bainbridge Island or Vashon. We have amazing hiking within an hour’s drive of town in the Issaquah Alps at http://www.issaquahalps.org, and lots of nature to see at the Seattle Aquarium at http://www.seattleaquarium.org, the Woodland Park Zoo at http://www.zoo.org and Discovery Park at http://www.seattle.gov/Parks/Environment/discovparkindex.htm. I love my city. While it is not as intense as New York or Los Angeles, not as open as Chicago, and certainly not very old, we have big hills, great mountain views, lots of water and a population known for being polite, well-read and music- and nature-oriented. I hope your time in The Emerald City is productive and fun, and you find a few nuggets in this essay to make your trip that much better. See you in Seattle! Ann Romeo is a senior analyst at Guideline. She can be reached at aromeo@guideline.com.
Member News
Rebecca Butts Rebecca Butts started a new job as a senior business researcher at Ernst & Young on May 12. She’s part of the Center for Business Knowledge and works out of the Detroit office. She reports, “I'll be supporting the automotive and manufacturing industries.” Rebecca previously worked for Modernista! in Detroit.
Virginia Ferestad Virginia Ferestad reached two milestones in January 2008: her 50th anniversary of employment with Campbell Mithun Advertising Agency in Minneapolis, and her retirement. Virginia joined CM on Jan. 27, 1958 as a library clerk and advanced to head librarian in 1971. Most recently, she held the title of director of library/information services, and was a vice president of the agency. Virginia has been an SLA member since 1973 and served as president of the Minnesota chapter in 1989. An active and contributing member for many years, Virginia was awarded the Innovation in Action Award in 1999 for co-chairing the Local Arrangements Committee for the SLA Annual Conference in Minneapolis that year. As for retirement plans, Virginia says she would like to re-organize her massive collection of recipes—and create some new ones along the way. She also intends to do more traveling with her husband, Tim.
Daniel Lee and Winter Shanck Congratulations to DAM members Daniel Lee and Winter Shanck who will be awarded the SLA Diversity Leadership Development Program Award at the SLA Annual Conference in Seattle. Five people will receive the award, which goes to SLA members who represent a traditionally under-represented minority group within the association. Lee is a research librarian for Navigator Ltd. in Toronto, Ontario. Shanck is an archivist for the Reference Library/Tape Archive at Thirteen/WNET in New York City. The 2008 DLDP Awards are sponsored by EBSCO. Recipients each receive a $1,000 cash prize as well as complimentary registration for the conference. The DLDP Award program was developed by SLA to help accelerate the advancement and visibility of members who represent the diversity of the association by mentoring them for greater leadership opportunities. Recipients must have an interest and potential for leadership with SLA, have been a member of SLA for at least one year, and have between three and 10 years of professional library and information experience.
DAM SLA Party at The Chapel Bar By Rebecca Butts DAM Chair DAM will be doing something different this year. Instead of having a traditional open house at the convention center, we’ve reserved the upper balcony of The Chapel Bar at http://www.thechapelbar.com in Seattle. The socializing will be 6-7:30 p.m. (or whenever) Monday, June 16. We’ll have a chance to see a bit of Seattle, enjoy some nightlife, eat, drink and be merry with fellow DAM members. The Chapel Bar, 1600 Melrose Ave., is a short walk from the Washington State Convention and Trade Center (.4 miles to be exact). And check out the menu at http://www.thechapelbar.com/food.html. Members will be responsible for their own dinners and drinks (thank goodness for expense accounts). So come and enjoy some downtime from the convention, network and start the conference off right! Also, in keeping with SLA’s goal to be as green as possible, please print directions at http://www.thechapelbar.com/directions.html to The Chapel Bar before coming to the conference. If you forget, a limited number of directions will be available at the DAM business breakfast meeting that morning. For those who would rather not walk, there are taxis available, including Seattle Taxi, 206-709-2003; Farwest Taxi, 206-622-1717 and Yellow Cabs, 206-622-6500. Hope to see you there! Preview of DAM's SLA Conference Sessions
Dave McCaughan, a McCann WorldGroup regional strategic planning director for the Asia Pacific, will participate in the “Global Market Update & Trends” at 1:30-3:30 p.m., Monday, June 16. He will present “Please Don’t Call Them Consumers: The Asian-Pacific Market.” Please don’t call them consumers—the people of Asia don’t think that way about themselves and neither should we. We spend a lot of time studying “consumer habits” and "customer expectations" and trying to discover “consumer or customer insights,” but do we really understand what it is that people want and indeed are demanding in life today? For more than 10 years, the McCann Pulse’s investigation into Asian people’s lives has reminded us that sometimes the most basic things really still matter and that great creative communication is still grounded in understanding what motivates people. Asia is the “edge of the world” in leading so many innovations and changes. Consider Japanese is the most common blogging language in the world, China now has more Internet users and many more mobile phone users than the United States, and the Filipino are the world’s biggest user of SMS text messaging. Also, Japan and Hong Kong have the world’s oldest populations, Japan and China between them are more than half of the world’s luxury goods market, and India has produced perhaps the two breakthrough new products of the year so far in the Nano (the one you drive) and the Indian Premier League (the world’s first global standard sports league in 50 years).
The people of Asia are being driven by seven key themes that we will explore:
The DAM session on optimizing Web portals, “Is What You See What You Get,” will be 9-10:30 a.m., Tuesday, June 17. Here is a preview from two of the presenters:
Web Portals: Shopping 2.0 Probably you’ve heard a colleague or a patron remark the library should be more like Amazon.com. Or a new public library branch is really great because it has a coffee shop and colorful end-cap displays of new and featured titles just like Barnes & Noble. The extension of ideas and tactics from retail worlds into the setting of the library is nothing new. And in some ways the work of applying retail and merchandising concepts to the library has been made easier by the fact that the biggest retailer on the planet started out as a bookseller. The metaphors and models line up so nicely when we’re talking primarily about books, CDs and DVDs. Just add to cart ... From my perspective as an e-commerce information architect with a background in librarianship, I’m concerned these tidy comparisons between bookselling and book lending have had the unintended consequence of narrowing and prefiguring our perspectives on what we might, could or should do to optimize library Web portals. Instead of asking “What does Amazon.com do” when we plan our online strategy, what if we asked “What does Etsy.com do?” In this session we’ll examine Web site navigation and product findability concepts from some of the most innovative and effective online retailers. Attendees will see how special libraries can look beyond the 800-pound gorilla that is Amazon.com and find inspiration, ideas, features and functionality from online retailers whose tactics and techniques aren’t confined to or built primarily around books, music and films.
Dan Klyn is an ALA-certified librarian who’s never worked in a library
The Brigham Library at Educational Testing Service serves 2,700 employees in the Princeton, N.J., headquarters and eight other U.S. sites. For several years, the library maintained an intranet site developed with FrontPage. In 2008, the library moved its content to a SharePoint portal connected to the company’s SharePoint site, allowing for better control, functionality and categorization of its content. This move coincided with the library’s expanded role as a centralized location for internal knowledge sharing in addition to its traditional role as a provider of third-party content. The library also provides federated search and linking software to its clients. In this session, we’ll review the resources the Brigham Library makes available via its portal and how the change in environment enhanced the findability of internally and externally produced information and the value of the library. Karen McQuillen has worked at ETS for almost 25 years and in libraries for 27 years. Born in the fourth quarter of the baby boom, she is not part of that population who can retire anytime soon.
The DAM Roundtable is 3:15-4:15 p.m., Tuesday, June 17. Here is a preview from the moderator: One of the best reasons for being a member of SLA and attending the annual conference is the networking. To chat with fellow information professionals from around the world is a wonderful chance to learn, share and gain insights about our profession. Where else can you openly discuss vendors, knowledge management systems, listservs, blogs, search strategies and YouTube? This year DAM offers several opportunities to chat with old and new colleagues, including the annual Advertising and Marketing Roundtable. We’re a group that loves to laugh, have fun, eat and drink. However, we are passionate about the online services we use, the strategies and shortcuts we’ve developed and we love to share our collective knowledge. The roundtable is a forum where we share our insights and experiences. We’ve discussed social networking, instant messaging reference, Meebo rooms, RSS readers, Facebook and Factiva’s new pricing. Whew! I sense there will be quite a few controversial and exciting topics that will be discussed this year!
Do consider joining us at the roundtable. We promise a lively discussion. If you have a topic you would like discussed, please email me at
Julie@aaaa.org or call 212-850-0809. I look forward to seeing you in Seattle!
“The Green Consumer” will be 8- 9:30 a.m., Wednesday, June 18. Presenter Mandy Levenberg, senior director and consumer strategist for Iconoculture, recently responded to questions about her session. Who should attend "The Green Consumer" and why? Anyone who is interested in understanding current trends and what’s on the mind of all consumers today, whether they are currently engaged in environmental behaviors or aspiring environmentalists. What main points will you cover? I will be taking a look at the different shades of green consumers, how companies and non-profits have responded to those shades of green, and some best practices in the field. What takeaways will attendees leave with? Green is not a fad―it’s a consumer trend that is also seeping beyond the way we do business into governmental policy. Calculation is the new conservation―consumers are looking to understand what their impact is. Lastly, a broader understanding of the term sustainability, what it means to be a green consumer, and how to engage with this growing population. What should information professionals know about green consumers/consumerism and why is it important, especially today and in the near future? It’s important to realize that consistently behaving activists of the 70s are no longer. We see consumers that dip in and out of causes on a purchase-by-purchase and day-by-day basis, and what’s really important is to understand the values and motivators that inspire their behaviors and commitments, as well as the cause blind spots that we often observe from them. Green consumers come in all different shades of green. Companies and non-profits alike need to make sure they address a range of consumer behavior and depths of commitment, and opportunities to go greener. What else should people attending the SLA Conference know about you, your presentation and/or green consumers/consumerism? I live in Seattle, so being a green and cause-driven consumer is pretty easy and if anything, expected of me as a Seattleite. But, I can share with the audience my cause blind spots and inconsistencies that match with the general consumer.
Messages from Co-Chairs-Elect By Alisa Coddington DAM Co-Chair-Elect I never thought I’d say this, but I wish I had Twittered more during Leadership Summit, or blogged or posted on a wiki. Like some people, I have a love-hate relationship with 2.0 and now 3.0. One of the benefits of being an SLA member is having the chance to play with emerging technologies without serious commitment. SLA President Stephen Abram stressed this during his rousing Leadership Summit talk, "Reality 2.0: Attracting, Retaining and Engaging the Association 2.0 Member.” He encouraged us to promote the vast resources that are available to members, including Click University courses, the no-cost Course of the Month, thousands of management and leadership e-books, Factiva alerts and the forthcoming Innovation Lab. Along with all this enthusiasm for innovation was futurist Andy Hines kicking off the meeting with the keynote address, “Anticipating the Future,” which articulated how foresight helps deliver insight, a necessary attribute for every organization. He inspired many to look for possibilities, probe beneath the surface and leverage change and innovation in their early stages. SLA CEO Janice Lachance introduced the new Association Management System (AMS) as well as the Strategic Alignment Initiative with the hope they will help the association move forward by identifying more clearly perceptions and attitudes about information professionals and the association among senior executives. Members of the Fleishman-Hillard consulting team elaborated on the primary research they will do.
Handouts, presentation slides and board minutes from the summit are available at:
http://www.sla.org/content/resources/leadcenter/LeadershipSummit/08leadsummit/handouts.cfm
Meet Alisa Coddington I started at Carmichael Lynch in Minneapolis as a knowledge specialist in 2005. I have also worked as an archivist and a collections manager for private art collectors, and in retail merchandising. Besides my involvement with DAM, I am the public relations chair for the Minnesota Chapter of SLA. In my spare time, I enjoy travel, food, books and watching the kinds of television shows no one admits to watching, but secretly love.
Look to D.C. The theme for the 2009 SLA Centennial is “Information to Inspiration: Knowledge & Vision Shaping the Future.” SLA is truly committed to putting together an extraordinary centennial celebration, and co-chair-elect Alisa Coddington and I are fortunate to be responsible for DAM’s activities. We are so enthused about the centennial celebration in Washington, D.C., and are looking forward to some great programming. Right now we are in the pre-planning stage, generating lots of ideas and trying to think outside the box to come up with new, innovative (and inexpensive) presentations. Alisa will share more in her column about our experience at the Leadership Summit in January. I can tell you we talked with several other division chairs about partnering in 2009, both for speakers and for parties. The catering costs in D.C. are high, so if any of you have potential sponsorship ideas (or rich, eccentric aunts or uncles) please let us know! A feature to be unveiled in Seattle is the spotlight speaker. These conference presenters will be speakers SLA deems big audience draws. I’m hoping we can nab the “spotlight” with someone really great in D.C. Again, if you have ideas or contacts, let us know! Another exciting event I’m looking forward to in D.C. is a Sunday night semi-formal gala to be held at the National Building Museum at http://www.nbm.org, which is one of the locations for inaugural balls!
Additionally, the SLA Awards Reception will be Tuesday night in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress. What an amazing experience we will have!
Meet Lynn Strand-Meyer I’m fairly new to SLA and the profession. I graduated from the College of St. Catherine/Dominican University MLIS program in May 2007. I was fortunate to have an internship at Carmichael Lynch in Minneapolis, working with Deb Rash and Alisa Coddington. That internship helped me secure my current part-time work as a knowledge specialist with Iconoculture, a trend translation and marketing services firm in Minneapolis. Additionally, I have a fledgling freelance research business and am active on the PR committee of the Association of Independent Information Professionals. Before figuring out special librarianship was my calling, I worked in a variety of office management positions for non-profits and in executive recruitment. I also ran my family’s catering company for six years. I have two wonderful boys (ages 4 and 9) and a delightful husband. I’m a native Minnesotan, but love to vacation on islands, the warmer the better! My undergraduate studies focused on cultural anthropology and social science research. I also love Pilates, gardens, boating and as all librarians, books of all kinds.
Get to Know WARC Online
Jen Hahs recently emailed questions to
Carlos Grande, editor of World Advertising Research Center’s WARC Online. Here are his responses.
What are your challenges as editor of WARC Online?
I recently joined WARC Online from the Financial Times, where I was predominantly a print section editor and correspondent covering media, marketing and technology beats.
So the transition to online publishing, which offers an editor different technical and format choices, involves a steep learning curve by itself.
For anyone in the role, however, there would still be the ongoing requirement to live up to our promise of delivering global marketing insights and information.
That means we have to make our editorial priorities clear. We recently launched new “Spotlight” sections on digital marketing, Asia Pacific and recession and “Editor’s Choice” slots―while making it as easy as possible for users to search and find whatever they need from our continually growing resource of more than 45,000 articles.
We have to match the breadth of our content sources, such as Admap magazine, the Advertising Research Federation or one of our newest partners, the Nikkei Advertising Research Institute (NARI) in Japan, to a wide range of users from agency planners and insight teams to communications executives in advertisers or sales teams in TV, press or online media owners. We believe in-depth case studies―such as those we publish from the IPA in the U.K.―have become more valuable in a world of fragmented media, and we strive to ensure they are in front of users’ minds when they are facing new marketing objectives.
Finally, digital gives us more options to present information in the form of an interactive graphic, downloadable charts, a blog or eventually also podcast and videocast clips. So we also need to be aware of opportunities where users might find those formats more useful without doing anything simply for the technology’s sake.
How do you see WARC Online changing?
Since January, we have launched six new fully indexed sections. As well as those mentioned above, we have created areas on marketing alcoholic drinks, financial services and food. Retail, household goods and automotive are on the list for future development.
The purpose of these sections is to bring together all of our material from one industry, subject or region―whether it is a case study from the New York American Marketing Association, a Gale’s Encyclopedia entry, an ESOMAR research paper or a new opinion piece commissioned by WARC―all in one place.
For instance, in our digital section, you will find almost 200 case studies. There are also papers on the effectiveness of online advertising, how digital consumers behave, different digital platforms and individual industries’ use of Web marketing. We’re adding all the time new, specially commissioned articles on digital marketing and issues such as branding on social networks.
For some areas, WARC Online has amassed case studies, research and strategy papers going back to the 1980s. An example would be marketing in a recession.
That depth of content enabled us to produce at short notice ad expenditure charts and summaries of the most influential strategy thinking covering multiple economic slowdowns, several countries and two decades. We will probably do more of those exercises.
Looking forward, we are obviously interested in publishing more from the growth markets in Asia Pacific, and our partnership with NARI has helped us greatly with understanding the Japanese market for instance.
In all this work, our primary motivation is to make it as easy as possible for users to find the precise information they need.
Like every serious online publisher, we continually review our search engine. We have also trialled an “Ask WARC” service where anyone who cannot find what he or she is looking for on WARC Online can contact us to try and find it.
It’s sort of a challenge to our staff, and we are looking at whether and how we could extend this beyond the trial group.
How does WARC interact with users?
Probably not enough. We regularly email users on what is new on the site, particularly people we think will benefit most from a new section.
WARC also attends many leading industry conferences, including the SLA Annual Conference in Seattle. We often blog from conferences and invite our users to respond. We are always ready to help with queries, and the “Ask WARC” trial is obviously part of that wish.
Another feature we have been developing is an author-rating system that will allow users to evaluate the papers they read.
Of course, using our search engine, subscribers can already see which papers have been most read or designated as classics by WARC.
And if anyone has a comment or suggestion about an article, they can always reach me at
editor@warc.com.
WARC Online’s global approach to marketing insights is unusual for its sector. What issues does that create for you?
Our users are as likely to be in Mumbai as Miami. Therefore, we have to ensure local cultural or market references in any article are explained for every type of audience.
Users are also working in markets with different rates of adoption of new technology, and different brand and product share characteristics.
One of our most-read pieces from the Asia-Pacific section, for instance, discusses the difficulties of buying $1,000 of media in different markets across that huge region.
As a result, it is important we do not neglect areas that may be deemed unfashionable by some―such as radio or press advertising. We do not assume because users are interested in digital marketing, they will abandon all the insights they have accumulated about effective marketing in the television or press sectors or in brand building generally.
With the industry experiencing rapid changes such as the rise of online marketing, how can WARC cater to a wide range of users from agencies, media owners and advertisers?
It is undoubtedly a challenge. Fortunately, we have a wide and growing range of content partnerships across marketing, media and market research, and covering the U.S., Canada, U.K. and mainland Europe, and Asia Pacific.
Our job is to make some editorial choices on behalf of users via what we decide to put in the Editor’s Choice or on the home page and by creating dedicated areas whilst continually striving to make it easy for them to create and realize their own searches.
This is not a job where we are ever going to be able to say, “OK, we’ve done it now. We can all go home.”
Special Libraries Association assumes no responsibility
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