Saratoga Springs is a great place to live and run your business

By Steve Wilcox | February 10, 2011

I had some second thoughts about moving from Boston 5 years ago. I really had grown to love the city after 10 years and if you count college in the Berkshires, I spent 14 years in the Commonwealth. We were living in the city and had access to everything. I was working in the technology hub of the east coast and felt like I was where things were happening. Then boom – we started a family.

All of the sudden the chic metro condo and it’s study were turned into a nursery. The non-stop parade of toys and stuff made me realize we were all too soon going to out grow the space. We looked around the South Shore and Metro West for a starter home. My wife wanted to stay home with the children and creating a good living situation became almost impossible close to the city.

I grew up in Upstate NY on the outskirts of Troy. I could not wait to get out of the Capital District. I had done everything there was to do here and wanted to go to a bigger pond. One with professional sports teams, a subway, tall buildings, galleries, and everything else a city gives you. I was thinking of going back. Once I realized myself as a husband and father providing a quality of life for my family, my immediate thoughts of were how I grew up. The ultimate compliment to my parents and family was that I was trying to re-create just what I had growing up.

Wait. You just started a family or looking to graduate from NYC or Boston but stay close to visit often? Well I have a great place for you – full of culture, great people, and great businesses. It is a little secret that is not so quietly being let out and people are quickly seeing Saratoga Springs and the Capital District are a great place to live and work.

I would be amiss if I did not tell you about the new semi-conductor chip fab that is going up just south in Malta, NY. It will be the most modern facility in the world and you remember what happened to Austin, Texas after Intel and AMD moved in? A small upstart named GE is leading the way in wind turbine technology and other companies in the area are exploring alternate energy ideas like fuel cells. Colleges across the area of creating programs to educate the technology workers of the future to support these emerging markets. They are calling it Tech Valley – where the Hudson River and the Mohawk River meet at the foot of the Adirondack Mountains and bordered to the south by the Catskills. It is 3 hours to New York City, Boston, or Montreal.

Smart people are creating a rich quality of life for themselves and their family by moving to Saratoga County. Home prices here vs. the city are a great value. Schools are excellent. The community is strong with a lot of volunteerism and involvement – to sponsored gardens and events for the family to support of the arts. Broadway in Saratoga is like Main Street USA with it’s lampposts, brick paver walks, and small shops. You are at the beginning of the Adirondacks and all that affords – hiking, camping, skiing, kayaking. There are great golf courses nearby including Saratoga National which is ranked on the Top 100 Public Golf Courses you can play by Golf Digest.

You are thinking to yourself – why has he waited so long to mention the track?  I guess that is the part you know about Saratoga Springs. You know it is the oldest horse racing track in America. It has seen the best horses in the history of the sport race to victory – or defeat. (Saratoga is known as the Graveyard of Champions). For 40 days or so in late July and August, this is the place to be. People from all over the world visit and spend millions of dollars in the area. This allows the small businesses and restaurants to stay open all year. Good for the locals who can sneak out on a quiet weekday night and enjoy a meal worthy of being in a big city.

I invite you – the entrepreneur, small business owner, agency creative – to do what I did. Take your talents, your energy, and your family to Saratoga Springs. Enjoy a superior quality of life without giving up your dreams of success.

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I’ve said it before – now is the time – build an online store today.

By Steve Wilcox | July 13, 2009

There is a great story about the small business entrepreneur coming out of this recession. There are people losing steady corporate jobs and finding themselves going after a long time dream. They now have the time and the job market is forcing them to. Sure the steady paycheck, benefits, and everything else that goes with someone having you on their payroll is great – but it’s also keeps you from going for it. Well at least it does for most.

I have had more demand for my services in the last 4 months then I can remember and I believe this is the first real sign of the economy moving forward. Small businesses, entrepreneurs, and risk takers taking new ideas and old businesses online to capture sales. It is great to see and helps me keep perspective when the media reports the doom and gloom.

If you have been waiting to get online with an ecommerce setup, the time is now. Many larger companies have pulled back their marketing and advertising budgets in cost cutting measures and the potential to make a splash with less dollars is there. Less competition can mean entering a market segment with less cost and SEO effort.

Don’t wait for the media to report that consumers are spending again – instead be there when they do.

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BriarCreekGolf.com launches

By Steve Wilcox | April 8, 2009

I recently had the pleasure of designing a site for some friends at Briar Creek Golf Course here in the Capital Region of NY. If you are looking for a fun place to play where the owners treat you like a member, check out Briar Creek Golf Course located about 20 outside of Albany, NY.

I really enjoy designing a website for a small business. I also really enjoy playing golf. It isn’t often that too things you love to do come together. It was fun to create and learn more about the business of golf and running a course. They do a great job at Briar Creek being welcoming all levels of players and create a fun atmosphere that is a departure from some of the courses in the area that try to be like a country club.

Stop by and visit Bill and Jack Sise at Briar Creek – you won’t be disappointed.

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Reaching the influential 18-24 audience with widgets and apps

By Steve Wilcox | February 9, 2009

How do you find these elusive gen y’ers and get your message in front of them? They don’t have land lines or addresses that are reliable. They quickly stopped sharing their real email address long ago. They now skip commercials when they watch broadcast. They gave up on radio. They are too busy texting to look up at your billboard or bus stop.  How can you put your brand message in front of this audience – and how do you get them to interact with your brand where they are?

Increasingly marketers and advertisers are trying to break into social networking sites and the gadgets that are the tween to young professionals lifeline – their mp3 player, cell phone, or combined. Creating applications or user experiences in these spaces are difficult. Beyond ring tones and games, the average cell phone is a tough play. You can sponsor content and create some voting mechanisms to attach to a broadcast spot. Even when it does move to broadcast, it will be less interactive – unless the GPS signal can be leveraged for messaging. Then there is the iPhone.

The iPhone is ‘it’ right now and adoption of the Apple/AT&T subscription is growing at around 2MM subscribers per quarter. It’s got a ‘cool’ factor as well – as long as it is on the cover of Business Week and Fortune,  it will be a favorite of the mahagony desk. Creating an app is easy – creating an app that appeals to the masses, properly connects the brand with utility and generates buzz and downloads is very difficult. If you can pair a good/fun/relevant idea with your brand, develop an application that gets you in the space.

Facebook has exploded since its opening and its another space where life plays out for this demographic. Creating an environment that doesn’t seem contrived and lends itself to pass along and referral activity is a feat few have been able to accomplish. You can’t be to self-serving yet you are the one spending the money to develop the campaign. You also can’t control what direction it takes. You can only steer it – too much interference and they will see right through it. They have to adopt it and make it their own. The pay off has to be good for them to share it with their friends. A recent Whopper campaign by Crispin was a great example. The idea was they were giving away a free whopper if you un-friended friends. It connected the brand to a value proposition but also created a situation where you had to put a value on your friends. Would you dump them for a Whopper? Then they tracked how many friends were dumped – 200,000 – proving the whopper to be worth more than some of your friends on Facebook.

The formula for creating a winning campaign in this space is not defined. Risk taking and creative thinking are required to develop something that will move the masses. While creating a daily planner app might be most useful for your brand selling daily planners, if you switched it up and created a shared social calendar where friends could pencil in social engagements on each other’s date book – it might just create the winning app and buzz you are looking for.

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Pepsi logo mimics Obama campaign logo

By Steve Wilcox | January 5, 2009
Hope and Pepsi

Hope and Pepsi

Pepsi quietly updated their logo to more align with popular culture. And what’s more popular right now than Obama?  Sure it is subtle but as soon as I saw it I thought of “Hope”. It is not the first time this form of flattery has been employed and it won’t be the last. It is usually reserved for smaller players without big agency budgets. In full disclosure, the author is employed at DDB, part of The Omnicom Group. TBWA/Chiat/Day is the new agency of record for Pepsi Co, which is also part of The Omnicom Group.

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Making Lemonade in a Down Economy – Start a Business

By Steve Wilcox | December 18, 2008

Often out of most challenging circumstances come the best changes. If I look back at some of the biggest moves I made, it was while I was uncomfortable and taking risk. In a down economy, while some people see it as a time where there are no jobs, opportunities, or in general where we are steps from impending doom – others see it as a perfect time to start a business. The following is my idea on why now is the perfect time to start an online business. Here’s two scenerios on why now is the time to act.

1. You Lost your Job

Well now you have the time - one component of starting a new business that is always a challenge. Often times people that are risk adverse find its easiest to make a move when “I’ve got nothing else to lose”. Perfect – dust off that great idea you have last summer on starting a business and go for it. Drop by Starbucks or go to the local chamber of commerce – even the library – if you need to find others ready to get into something. I have a feeling that some of the president-elect’s ideas for boosting the economy will involve stimulating small business. SBA loans and resources for small companies could be made readily available and that would make it the perfect time to position your new enterprise for growth.

2. I feel stuck in my job because the market is horrible

You could be thankful you have a job and go through the motions waiting for the economy to pick back up again. Sure hiring freezes will thaw and you will once again be free to pursue your career – but that could take 2 years. What are you going to do in the meantime? Sure you need to excel at work and justify your position even in a down economy, but now might be the right time to take a shot at creating something for yourself. You have less pressure at putting food on the table while you have a job and that could allow you to be more creative. It will take longer – so have patience – but when the economy comes out of its deep sleep you may not be looking for a new position because you will be running your own company.

So if the current economy and job market is giving you lemons – make lemonade.

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Marketing to people at work

By Steve Wilcox | December 9, 2008

In reviewing the results from Cyber Monday, it looks like half of the all the buyers were at work. Overall sales were up 15% and a lot of the retailers saw large traffic gains. You can view the release here from comScore. It drives the idea of how to target these customers while they are preparing to make purchases at work during a break or lunch.

When I worked at CNET, we had a large at-work audience and developed advertising programs around that audience. One concept that used was day-parting – displaying ads at select times. A good example was we were having difficulty breaking into consumer brands such as food and beverage for a tech audience but lured Anheuser Busch in for a happy hour flight from the hours of 3-6 on a Friday. The advertising worked because it was relevant and timely.

Same pricincipal applies to marketing to an at work audience for eCommerce. Your offer not only has to be relevanet to the consumer, but has to be delivered at the right time. I know many email marketing campaigns that have avoided the morning hours because of the idea you wanted to avoid the morning email sifting where the consumer was more focused on accomplishing work tasks. If the consumer is lining up their day of tasks and shopping online happens to be one of those tasks, it might be the right time to put and offer in front on them.

Another concept would be offering lunchtime deals that are only live during EST and PST hours of 11-2. Creating sales events during the day and for a limited time creates reasons for shoppers to shop your site and the motivation to buy. You can also create consumer habit if you schedule these sales on a weekly basis or once a month. Consumers will learn to go to your site to look for deals and you will increase traffic.

So get out and test new campaigns that target consumers in hours where they are getting ready to do some holiday shopping online at work. Try different days – the old reliable middle of the week rule might be out – Monday could be the best day to start to try out lunchtime offers following a big Cyber Monday.

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Online retailers will fight for less dollars this year

By Steve Wilcox | November 26, 2008

Cyber Monday is a great online event idea to work with the traditional brick and mortar Black Friday sales events to kick off the holiday shopping season. This year, with the economy in a slump, retailers will need to find new ways to lure shoppers to their sites and stores. Average spending is forecasted to be almost half of what it was per consumer this year so trying to wrestle those dollars out of the hand’s of consumers will take more then your usual free shipping offer.

Start early – in year’s past you might be able to guage sales and then create some last week quick ship and late shopper sales to capture some additional sales. I wouldn’t wait this year to create interest and traffic with your best offerings. Give them time to get out there and try to beat your competitors with best offers. You may not get a second chance at consumers making that ‘ just one more gift ‘  purchase. Assume the budgets will be tight and get what you can.

I would also concentrate on total cart value this year. You have a better shot using effective up sells and cross sells to add to average order value then you do with larger ticket items. If you are selling hats, make sure gloves, ear muffs, and scarves are on the quick add to cart list. Seems obvious, but incremental items in the cart, especially lower price items, could improve your revenue per order. Mercado is a great tool to serve up automatic cross sells and upsells. If you don’t have it, take a look at your data often and switch up the cross sells according to your ‘also bought’ stats.

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Online Sales up just 1% for October

By Steve Wilcox | November 21, 2008

Recently comScore Inc. released sales numbers for online retailers and they were dissappointing but not as bad as one would have thought. With lower overhead then brick-and-mortar shops, this holiday season could see gains in wallet share of consumers for online retailers. Still, sales are at their lowest levels since tracking began in 2001.

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Open for Business – Saratoga has a new eCommerce company

By Steve Wilcox | November 10, 2008

It is exciting to announce that RUCREATIVE LLC is official. The newly formed business is based out of the Saratoga Springs area and will consult with local businesses in eCommerce, Web Design, Marketing, and Advertising. Created in 1997, RUCREATIVE began as a freelance shop in Boston for agencies, design houses, and small companies. Now with over 13 years of experience, Steve Wilcox lends his expertise in leveraging online marketing to increase revenue,  sales, traffic, and improve your business online.

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