Newsletters

"NASCAR, Welcome to the 21st Century!"

Some of the most loyal fans around of any sport gather every weekend during NASCAR season to experience life at the track and cheer on their favorite driver. But when the race weekend comes to an end, International Speedway Corporation (ISC) doesn’t want to lose touch with their customers.

ISC, a leading promoter of motor sports events, which owns several tracks across the country, turned to the Web to extend the experience online. Like any business, it’s tougher for ISC to attract new customers than maintain existing ones.

So to build those relationships, ISC partnered with Neighborhood America to launch the RacingOne online community.

Race fans can share pictures and videos, connect with other fans, and exchange personal experiences and ideas for enjoying the different tracks. So how does ISC, or really any event-focused business, benefit for the social interaction happening between fans online?

The site provides ongoing engagement between race fans and ISC to derive real business value: increases in brand loyalty, ticket sales, and advertising revenue.

Witness how it's done. Click on the photo of Richmond International Raceway to watch the three-minute video case study.

Featured MOVO Customer: scenarioDNA
Learn how you can go mobile by visiting MOVOmobile.com

Leading Consumer Insights Think Tank Turns to Mobile to Engage Consumers

Many of the nation’s leading brands turn to scenarioDNA to gain consumer insights that keep their brands at the forefront of a competitive industry. Now, thanks to a strategic partnership with Neighborhood America, scenarioDNA’s Fortune 500 client base has the power to engage an increasingly elusive consumer in the most personal and immediate way possible – through their mobile phone.

scenarioDNA selected Neighborhood America’s MOVO Mobile solution to power its mDive suite of tools and enhance its service offerings. Mobile communication, used alone or in conjunction with an online social network, enables brands to connect with consumers, no matter where they roam.

The partnership began taking shape when Miller Lite set out to understand where they sit among male light beer drinkers. scenarioDNA quenched the brand's thirst for consumer insight by using Neighborhood America's MOVO Mobile solution to gain valuable feedback regarding consumer choices and consumption habits.

For more details, read the full press release or visit MOVOmobile.com.

Will Work For Fun by Shelli Wright, Director of Creative Services

Day to day, the Creative Services department has fun whipping up ideas and images to help sell, build and launch our online communities.

We’re lucky that we get to make a living doing something we love. But secretly all Creatives want a chance to be purely, um… creative. You know that fluffy stuff you submit to award festivals.

So when IMG Academies contracted our department to create an ad campaign to promote their new online community powered by Neighborhood America, we were all a tingle.

In a traditional agency, two creative teams (an art director & copy writer) come up with a handful of concepts and the Creative Director awards the job to the team with the best concept.

In our case, three of our designers came up with their own unique ideas. 17 of them! And the results were so impressive the client couldn’t choose one. So we selected four that had a similar tone and then recreated them to complement each other.

The entire department pitched in and in true agency fashion, we spent after hours cutting, mounting boards, laying out prints and getting a little high on spray glue in the hallway!

What we ended up with was a series of four ads that I would be proud to show off to any traditional agency.

We executed a campaign that incorporated flyers, web ads, print ads, email blasts and a life-size banner on property. It may have been a productive exercise to promote the community, but really… we had a ball!

What do you think of the ads? How would you effectively promote your online community?

Share your thoughts at our Neighborhood Cafe.

New Mixed Martial Arts Online Community Invites Fans to Exclusive Pre-Launch

Fans of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) believe, like a lot of people, that ultimate fighting has replaced boxing as America’s fighting sport. In an age of video games and instant gratification, MMA has attracted a certain kind of fan – young, raised on action movies and Xgames. The fights are fast and exciting, and that is why MMA has grown rapidly, to the point of setting pay-per-view records.

MMAReaLife.com intends to attract this fan base to their new online community, powered by Neighborhood America. The interactive site, which is currently inviting members to its exclusive pre-launch, will soon provide 24/7 access to world-class MMA athletes, ring girls, gyms, and other passionate fans.

Neighborhood America’s social networking platform gives members the ability to interact with each other by setting up profiles, posting photos and videos – and like no other MMA inspired social network, through its mobile technology and video chat.

This will give gyms, sponsors and agents around the world the ability to reach out and search for new fighters and members, and provides an opportunity for aspiring amateur fighters to promote themselves and build a fan base.

“MMAReaLife.com is committed to bringing its members the most exclusive access to all that embodies MMA,” said Dante F. DiSabato, President & Founder of MMAReaLife.com. “Our goal is that through time we will be able to connect MMA fans to all of their favorite fighters and personalities as well as behind the scenes like no other, living the MMAReaLife.”

MMAReaLife.com is poised to become the most technologically advanced online environment for MMA fans -- at the same time, affording our customer a huge business opportunity to engage consumers and grow their affiliated merchandising company, MMA Authentics, distributor of Cage Fighter and Familia Gladiatorial apparel.

Are you ready for the main event! Visit MMAReaLife.com to get an invitation to the exclusive pre-launch and receive a discounted purchase of MMA gear.

Naming N.A.M.E.S. a Huge Success

Soon, two extraordinary girls will meet for the first time - thanks, in part, to Neighborhood America’s new in-house, charitable organization known as N.A.M.E.S. (Neighborhood America Making Everyone Smile) - and chances are that this pair will become fast friends. They are 10-year-old Alyssa, the daughter of Neighborhood America’s Network Administrator, Anthony Rojas, and one-year-old Reba, a highly trained buddy dog with an extremely sensitive nose.

Alyssa was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes July 2006, shortly after she turned eight years old, a dangerous condition that has changed the family’s life. Alyssa’s blood sugar level must be monitored constantly – even while she sleeps – in order to prevent a sudden drop that could send her into a devastating coma – or worse. But watching her day and night is difficult for her parents, who fear for Alyssa’s safety while she is at school or when the family is sleeping.

That’s where N.A.M.E.S. found a way to help. The organization, which was founded by a group of Neighborhood America employees earlier this year, is dedicated to giving back to the communities that they live and work in. Thanks to the fund raising efforts of Neighborhood America employees, the Rojas family has been able to adopt Reba - a highly trained German Shepard who has learned to detect even the slightest changes in Alyssa’s blood sugar levels through her scent.

Training for a dog like Reba is expensive, but the benefits are worth every penny. The canine companion will accompany Alyssa everywhere she goes - from school, to sleepovers – allowing her to feel confident and to stay safe, while giving her parents greater peace of mind.
What could be better? Not only does Alyssa get the care she needs, but she and her whole family get a loyal and loveable new friend.

N.A.M.E.S. has contributed to several community efforts over the last several months, including a walk for the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation, an NCH Blood Drive, and Autism Speaks.

“Improving the quality of life within the communities where we live and work has always been an essential goal for Neighborhood America, as well as a fulfilling and rewarding objective for all of us who participate,” says Nicky Weston, Marketing Manager at Neighborhood America and Head of N.A.M.E.S.

Nicky urges those who wish to make a request or donation to contact her directly at nweston@neighborhoodamerica.com, or (239) 591-6859.

Boston Gets a Java Jolt

What gets our Executive Vice President going in the morning? Well, in case you missed his hilarious video invitation to the Coffee and Clarity seminar series, it’s a Starbucks Red Eye (a cup of drip coffee with one shot of espresso in it). Yikes! Considering how much he’s been traveling in the past week, the drink is ironically appropriate.

Following on the heels of a successful presentation at the AlwaysOn & STVP Summit at Stanford, during the CEO Showcase where Neighborhood America was honored as an AO Global 250 Winner, Dan Miller jet-setted to Boston for the first Coffee & Clarity on July 28th.

As the keynote speaker, Dan provided a fact-filled hour discussing all the essentials to creating a powerful and sustainable online social network for the enterprise.  After presenting a range of topics that included important tips & tricks, the dos and don'ts, and a close look at real-world case studies, Dan wrapped up the session with an interactive workshop involving the attendees. Their mission: to develop an initial blueprint of their own social network.

The response was overwhelmingly positive, as many attendees expressed how social networking for business is fast becoming their top marketing initiative and many asked to keep updated on future seminars on this exploding area.

Our Coffee & Clarity summer series continues with our next seminar in Atlanta, August 14th.  Registration is filling up, so if you’re interested in learning more, please contact Gwen Wright, gwright@neighborhoodamerica.com, or (239) 591-6804.

The Communications Challenge for the Public Sector

Finding the best ways to engage citizens and to formulate democratic policy was at the core of the panel discussion that Neighborhood America President & CEO, Kim Kobza, participated in at the recent The Public Manager and ASPA Inaugural Conference in Baltimore, MD.

The conference, titled: “Transforming Bureaucratic Cultures:
Challenges and Solutions for Public Management Practitioners,” grappled with identifying ways to solicit and engage the government, the private and the non-profit sectors, among others, on issues of universal concern.

High on the panel’s list of discussion points, were the ways in which government organizations at all levels have attempted to reach out to other sectors to communicate on proposed rule making and policy decision making, within the context of new communications technologies. Underlying the conversation was the recognition that these and coming technological innovations will likely transform the ways in which information, ideas and more are disseminated, collected and compiled.

Along with Kim, other panelists facilitating the conversation were Earl Mathers, Gallatin County MT, and Martha Dorris of the U.S. General Services Administration. Paul Crookall of Canadian Government Executive Magazine moderated the discussion.

Keep It Real


When Neighborhood America’s Director of Business Development Sandra Susino gave her keynote speech at the Marketing Executives Networking Group (M.E.N.G.) Conference in Miami recently, she had very little convincing to do when it came to the importance of effective social networking at the enterprise level. Members of the group, which consisted of roughly 20 of the region’s highest level marketing executives, already recognized that a well conceived online community would likely play a key role in their brand’s future success – maybe even its survival. What they were anxious to learn from Sandra, however, was exactly how to do it.

“The marketplace is already littered with examples of organizations that have created sites improperly, ended up loosing their financial investment, and worse, credibility with their customers,” says Sandra. “By providing both our ELAvate platform, and the top level strategic planning and consulting that is essential for bringing all of the communications elements together in a meaningful way, Neighborhood America is uniquely able to help organizations avoid these kinds of errors.”

A portion of Sandra’s address centered on the fact that this approach requires a thorough change in the way that companies view their relationship with their customers – a change that makes the consumer a partner in passing on brand information that is based on their own real experiences.

“Organizations can no longer simply push a carefully constructed marketing message out to consumers,” Sandra says. “The new matrix allows for a legitimate give and take, and that’s what customers are already beginning to demand.”

Sandra acknowledges that this fundamental shift in the balance of power, can be frightening for marketing executives, who can no longer hope to completely control what customers see and hear about their brands, but she adds that when set up properly, this type of marketing can offer more substantial and more usable information than any amount of marketing research ever could – real, uncensored product perceptions that can ultimately be used to help forge stronger, more lasting customer relationships.