Versant Recognized for Health Care Communications

Versant has a history of excellence in health care communications. The Medingo Solo Demo Kit was awarded the 2010 Gold Aster award, honoring excellence in medical marketing. “With the product demo kit, brochures, PR and booth graphics, Medingo definitely made our mark. We couldn’t have done it without Versant’s constant diligence and communication, tremendous creative and PR team. It has been a joy to work with them and nice to have peace of mind knowing they will always get the job done.” Kim Stebbings, EVP Marketing & Sales, Medingo. See what else Kim says about working with Versant and more on our other award-winning work in health care.

What Do Women Want? TO SUCCEED

On Friday, April 30, 2010, it will not be business as usual on the UW-Milwaukee campus. The UWM School of Continuing Education will be hosting the 2010 Women Leaders Conference. Pat Nazemetz, Chief HR Officer at Xerox Corporation, will be the featured keynote speaker among other successful businesswomen who will speak on preparing for the future face of the changing workforce.

Doing Something Different This Holiday Season

Every December, Versant sends holiday cards to our friends, clients and business partners. This year we wanted to do something different. We are donating the money we would have spent on cards and postage to United Way as part of our annual fundraiser. However, we still wanted to send a holiday greeting. Never one to back down from a challenge, our associate Korre Johnson grabbed his Flip cam and a group of unsuspecting co-workers to create the following holiday video. Season’s greetings on behalf of everyone at Versant. Enjoy.

Davis & Kuelthau Web Site Wins WebAward

We’re excited to announce that we have recently been recognized with the Web Marketing Association’s WebAward on behalf of our client, Davis & Kuelthau.

This award is for “outstanding achievement in Web site development” in the category of “Legal Standard of Excellence.” The WebAward Competition, now in it’s 13^th year, recognizes the best Web sites within 96 industries and includes nominations from more than 47 countries around the world.

Being able to partner with a great client such as Davis & Kuelthau to create award-winning work is always a positive experience. Congratulations to both the Davis & Kuelthau and Versant teams for creating work of which they can be very proud!

Creating a Connected Culture

Will Ruch (CEO/Managing Partner, Versant) and John Murray (Attorney, Lindner & Marsack, S.C.) invite you to participate in a Web-based seminar titled “Creating a Connected Culture: World 2.0 Employee Communications” on Tuesday, October 13, 2009.

This presentation will share a variety of World 2.0 communication tools and strategies, including how to create and foster a positive workplace culture, how to engage employees around the organization’s goals and how to encourage constructive dialogue that connects employees with the organization.

This learning will benefit all levels of management and human resources who need to develop effective communication strategies for connecting with employees.

Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Time: 12:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. CST
Duration: 90 minutes
Cost: Complimentary

To Register: Send an e-mail to lgurrath@lindner-marsack.com

Sharing Learning with the International Association of Business Communicators

Mary Dingeldein, Human Resource Director, and Dee Johnson, Account Group Director, VersantWorks, spoke to members of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) on Wednesday, September 23, in Madison, Wisconsin. Their topic was How to Create a Performance-focused Culture through World 2.0 Communication Strategies. 

About the program– Focusing employees on achieving results has never been more important than it is today. This learning session helps participants gain an understanding of how to create and foster a workplace culture that builds and sustains commitment from high-performing talent.

Additional details can be found on the IABC Web Site http://madison.iabc.com/meetings.htm

Great Relationships Create Award-winning Work

Winning industry awards are a compliment to the strategic and creative teams that concept and produce the work. At Versant, we take a broader and more inclusive view of award-winning work. We believe it has a lot to do with the leap of faith that a client takes with us when they move forward with our ideas and are willing to stretch creatively. We can only win awards when clients trust us enough to create work on their behalf. And because these awards span a number of categories and industries, we believe this recognition confirms our company-wide commitment and ability to succeed in creating breakthrough work that gets results.

Some of our recent awards include…

Health Care

A Gold Aster Award (for excellence in medical marketing) was awarded to Versant and our client, Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging, for the PDI Teleradiology Web site we produced for them (www.pdi-teleradiology.com).

Grocery

Another recent award for innovative interactive work came from the Sixth Annual S.I.A.A. (Service Industry Advertising Awards) competition for our work with grocery chain, Fairway Market, in the greater New York City area. The Web site, www.discoverfairway.com, has become a key promotional tool for Fairway Market and a model for new store openings, with fun and engaging webisodes featuring Fairway personalities, weekly specials and recipes, e-mail sign-up and event announcements.

Legal

In the legal category, Versant and Davis & Kuelthau, a Wisconsin law firm, have won a prestigious Legal Marketing Association award for excellence in brand identity. You can see the new DK brand at www.dkattorneys.com.

Transportation

Versant and Southeast Wisconsin Transit Partners have received the Transportation Marketing & Communications Association (TMCA) 2009 Compass Award. This awards program recognizes organizations in North American transportation that have created innovative, results-oriented marketing and communications programs. Versant and SEWT were recognized for the “My Ride” television campaign.

Great work is a result of relationships with great clients!

Don’t Take My Word for It

Social media and technology are accelerating the pace of conversation, and everyone is talking about everyone else more than ever before. This matters to you as a business person because there are likely conversations going on right now that are influencing your company’s brand and the relationship someone might want to build with it. You can’t control it, but you can influence it. By remaining authentic and transparent in everything you do, you can be genuine in your approach and invite your brand ambassadors to help share your story as well.

At Versant, we rebuilt our Web site to be a communications hub of sorts, to share what we do and what we are about, and also provide ongoing learning that we hope will help our clients and others.

Our new site is designed to be a reflection of who we are and how we’ve built this company. It showcases our work, yes. But it also lets you know what it’s like to work with us and how we create communications that connect. And because we believe strongly in what we have to offer, and the importance of transparency, we’ve even included how we do what we do. That might be gutsy for some firms to do, but at Versant, that’s how we do business.

But don’t take my word for it. After all, I can talk nonstop about our work and our great team. Our new site also lets our customers tell our story. On the site are both written and video testimonials from many of our clients and I encourage you to look at these. Let me know what you think. After all, it’s your opinion that counts, not mine.

Two Clients Win Top Awards

We’re proud to announce that we have recently received awards on behalf of two of our clients.

Thomson Reuters received First Place from the Creative Excellence Awards (CEA) for their Interview Tips Guide. Versant worked with Thomson Reuters to create this recruitment marketing piece which received the award in the category of College Giveaways.

Southeast Wisconsin Transit Systems has also been recognized by the Transportation Marketing & Communication Association (TMCA) with a Compass Award for their recent Environmental Campaign. The TMCA Compass Award is the highest level of professional acknowledgement within marketing and communication in today’s transportation marketplace. This is the second year in a row Versant won an award from this group on behalf of Southeast Wisconsin Transit Systems.

We’re thankful to have worked with these clients to be able to create great work. Congratulations to our clients and our Versant team who made these projects possible.

Alumni Networks Are More Than a Business Initiative

Although we work very hard to retain good people, we recognize that we cannot meet everybody’s needs all the time, and sometimes we have to just buck up and watch great employees move on. Whenever an associate departs our company, we make sure to say “farewell” or “see you later" rather than “good-bye.”  Although difficult, we have learned that their departure strengthens our alumni network. 

If you have ever doubted the value of maintaining an alumni network, read on. Yes, alumni programs make logical sense, and we can quickly identify metrics to support our own program. For example, our alumni network has generated employee and business referrals and allowed us to bring back top performers. But recently I witnessed what this connection can really mean to people on a personal level.

Sadly, one of our employees is dealing with a serious medical condition. With permission, we notified an alumnus who notified an alumnus who notified an alumnus. Before we knew it our alumni started a “help-a-thon.” The employee was speechless, the alumni were speechless and we were speechless. Imagine that, a communications company rendered speechless!

Alumni networks are more than a business initiative. They are a way to connect the best of the past with the best of the present to create a brighter future.

Keeping Morale Up in a Down Economy Through Recognition

Bob Nelson, Ph.D., president, Nelson Motivation, Inc., reminds us that a Culture of Recognition can improve both morale and productivity. He says employees are feeling stressed in the midst of ongoing negative news and economic uncertainty, cutbacks and layoffs. Employees feel overworked and under appreciated. Providing more personal attention and recognition to employees in tough times helps build morale and commitment. We need employees’ efforts now more than ever before, so we’ve taken a look at our own recognition programs at Versant.

While we reward and recognize Versant associates in many different ways, from praise to parties and perks, we are most proud of our current Brand Champion program. Most recognition programs tend to dwindle in 12 to 18 weeks, according to Dr. Nelson. Our Brand Champion program has been an important part of our culture for three years. But, all good things must come to an end, and we are thinking about making a change before the program wanes. As we select our next recognition program, we are considering what made our Brand Champion program so successful and long lasting.

Versant’s Brand Champion program has motivated and inspired people to excel for many reasons. It is personal, creative, aligned with our culture, efficient, and best of all it involves peer recognition and fanfare. Associates choose who should be recognized based on Versant’s Brand Voice: Inventive, Trend-aware, Intelligent, Experienced, Confident, Engaging and Responsive. It is a great honor for an associate to receive this award from fellow associates. The award is ceremoniously presented in front of the whole company. A creative poster of the recipient is displayed in the main hallway and each winner receives a second, smaller poster for their office along with a small cash prize.

It will be difficult to say good-bye to our Brand Champion program. It has been a good run. However, we will find the right new program that captures the best qualities of Brand Champion, and our culture of recognition will endure.

Versant Is Hiring

Here is your chance to join a fast-paced and award-winning workplace. We specialize in providing a high degree of custom development on top of the Ektron CMS 400 Content Management System (CMS) to build high-end branding and recruitment Web sites. We have the following openings:

1. HTML Guru (AKA Web Producer / Designer)

You will be part of a team environment, joining one other HTML Guru (designer/producer), and several C# .NET programmers under the direction of a project manager to work on multiple Web projects at once.

Your core role will be to provide the technical expertise to template existing designs and style HTML output from our CMS using CSS so that it presents a site that is true to the original design, fast to load, and compliant across all browsers.

This role provides a great opportunity to develop your expertise in Web production, as well as offering the opportunity for advancement, including lateral advancement in the roles of project management, video editing/postproduction, creative development, or interactive programming.

2. Junior and Senior Web Developers

You will work on multiple projects at once in partnership with Web interface designers, other programmers, and with Web producers who specialize in styling the CMS output into compliant HTML.

Your core role will be to architect and code compelling Web sites and Web-based applications using a C# Microsoft .NET development environment.

This role provides a great opportunity to develop your expertise as a project visionary and as a programmer as well as offering the opportunity for advancement in the role of project management.

You can view the job description and apply online in our career section.

What Do Awards Really Mean?

Recently, Versant received a national transportation award from the Transportation Marketing and Communications Association on behalf of our work for the Southeast Wisconsin Transit Partners and the Wisconsin Department of Transportation. Versant was also honored by a long-standing architectural firm, Plunkett Raysich Architects for the development of their Web site, which was named an Ektron All-Star – among the best in the industry.

This recognition makes for happy clients. So what does this mean in today's business environment?

Awards in general support reputation. In our business and in the business of the clients we serve, reputation is critical to attracting and retaining clients and employees. With the new media world creating transparency for all of us, awards confirm our strategic thinking and often our ability to execute the work in very innovative and impactful ways. The bottom line is that most awards today also require a statement of results, and that is what clients are most interested in.

We are grateful for the awards we received, but are most grateful for the impact we've had on our clients’ business.

Staying Ahead of the Game

Being close to your clients and also the people and resources that help you create your distinct advantage are sure ways to remain successful.

Believing in this, the presence of Versant now stretches coast-to-coast. Our roots are deep within Milwaukee, WI where our main office resides, while the New York, NY office has provided us with a powerful presence on the East coast with many of our clients located there. We are excited to announce that our presence has now expanded to the West coast in Burbank, CA.

Why Burbank? Successful communication uses messages and media that connect. Today, video has moved from TV to the iPod and everywhere in-between. Our never-ending quest brings us to Burbank because it’s a place where new thinking, talent and resources are located.

In addition to our other creative and production resources, we have teamed with Greg Cooke – video producer, writer and director who resides in Burbank. Together, we can continue to create the best possible work for our clients. Greg has worked with some of the biggest names in the business such as NBC and CBS with shows including 60 Minutes and The Amazing Race.

These are exciting times that bring exciting opportunities, and I look forward to our continued success in the video market and what our resources on the other side of the Mississippi will be able to bring us.

Good-bye, Hello Again!

Relationships are critical in business. But it’s not just the relationships you have with your clients that matter. In a healthy workplace, relationships with employees matter. Staying connected to good people even after they are no longer employees can be just as important, so recently Versant held an Alumni Reunion with former employees and old friends.

Over 50 past and current associates came to share stories, reminisce and tell what they are doing now. Maintaining relationships is an important decision to make, especially when realizing that you never know when or where you will work with an individual again. Not often do past associates come back as a new client, partner or even to work for you again, but it does happen and certainly has happened for us. For those of us who stay connected, some real win-win situations can occur!

Beyond reconnecting, our reunion doubled as a fundraising event for the United Way of Greater Milwaukee. I greatly appreciate the contributions from both our guests and our current associates.

Thanks to all that attended. It was a night to remember and one I’m certain we will talk about the next time we all get together.

Connecting With the Past - For the Future

What do you think of when someone says Alumni Reunion? For most people, this means reconnecting with high school or college classmates. At Versant, this means reconnecting with past associates and friends. Versant will be hosting its second Alumni Reunion on October 5, at our office. The first reunion was held in September 2003 when alumni joined current associates for an evening of fun and reminiscing. With a 40+ year history, there’s a lot to talk about and celebrate. But history is not all that people are interested in. The reunion gives everyone a chance to catch up both personally and professionally. When someone leaves a company, you never know what the future holds and when paths will cross again. An associate could very well be a client one day.

This year we will be connecting to our community as well. The reunion event will also be a fundraiser for the United Way of Greater Milwaukee. A number of activities are being planned to raise money for their annual campaign including a raffle and silent auction. We look forward to celebrating the wonderful connections made over the years while helping others. So, to the alumni of Versant (and Jim Hughes Advertising / Hughes Ruch / Hughes, Ruch & Murphy) mark your calendars for the evening of October 5. Watch for more information.

Trying New Things = Learning = Fun

A couple of weeks ago, I signed up for Versant’s Biggest Loser contest. The format is simple, the associate with the greatest percentage weight loss by the end of April is the winner, and the top three “Losers” win a cash prize. I’m a mother of two young boys, 2 years and 6 months old, and I have some extra weight after the pregnancies that I’d like to lose.

This week, my husband and I joined a gym. It was my husband’s idea, and the timing came together nicely with the weight loss contest. Historically, I’m not a gym kind of person. But I’m determined to give this a try. And getting started at the gym, I’m learning a lot, including that one bottle of water is not enough for a 60-minute Zumba class.

The gym is a lot of fun. The newness is extremely exciting and motivating. I can’t wait to do more and discover more. It’s pretty easy to get grounded into a steady routine in any area of life. And while routines can be very productive, I’m re-discovering the joy of trying something completely different. 

When applying this to work life, I’m wondering how we can step outside our comfort zones and try something new? How can we balance the efficiency of routine with discovery and exploration? I’m not sure of the answers, but I think that seeking out a few completely new experiences should be in everyone’s yearly work plans.

As for the weight loss challenge, I’ll let you know how it goes.

This blog is interactive; please share your comments! 

Community Counts

Not unlike many baby boomers, I am part of the sandwich generation. I’m juggling my role as executive creative director/partner at Versant with my roles as a husband of a working spouse, father of two young children and son of an aging parent. Sometimes it can seem overwhelming.  Don’t get me wrong. I feel very fortunate. In fact, I’d love to give back to the community in some way. The challenge is time, or lack thereof.

This is where my work family comes in.

At Versant, associates are encouraged to take an active role in making our community a better place to live and work. It’s a simple, but important, alignment of the company with our associates’ values.

Often times that effort can be co-mingled within our daily activities and client interaction, and admittedly, there is some business benefit to this. But more than any other reason, we do it because it is the right thing to do. Whether it’s contributing to the performing arts, www.upaf.org, participating in an asthma walk, www.lungwi.org, or visiting a school to read to kids, www.milwaukeerotary.com, Versant understands how important the community is and supports it wholeheartedly.

I once heard someone define the difference between management and leadership as the following:  Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right thing. I’m glad to be part of a company that is leading.

Williams Bay Retreat

Being a young and single Millennial, my typical weekend consists of time with friends, an occasional watering hole, sports and housework. Last weekend, however, I was on a company retreat in Williams Bay with my co-workers. While there was no housework involved (we each had our own hotel-style dorm room) there was certainly no shortage of friends, fun and sports!

There were four key goals outlined for the Williams Bay Retreat:

1. Build esprit de corps (Honor the group):

   This was done through a myriad of team-building activities, a Saturday night bonfire, leisurely strolls along beautiful Williams Bay in Lake Geneva, and cheering on our beloved Badgers, Nancy's USC and my Arrowhead Warhawks.

2. Learn and teach:

   Agency life is busy and at times I find it difficult to know about all of the projects happening throughout the company. It was exciting for me to take part in breakout sessions that involved other aspects of the business, and to see department-specific presentations and exemplary work created by other Versant associates. We left asking ourselves how we can incorporate these great concepts into work for other clients.

3. Align associates to the goals of 2007:

   This was the primary goal for the retreat and I feel it was accomplished not only by way of bringing us together on the same page, but also by giving us even more reason to be excited about who we are and where we are heading as a company.

4. Have fun:

   We had a great time! If I could only explain to you the experience of being the karaoke DJ for performances like "Born to be Wild," "Copacabana" and "Turn the Page!"

This retreat was a great way for me to hone my own business acumen while, as a team, strengthen the Versant bond and get to know my fellow colleagues on a more personal level. It is experiences like these that make me grateful to work for a company like Versant that makes an effort to cultivate the skill sets and careers of its associates.

Versant Retreats

This time of year we work with clients as they plan for the coming year. Frequently, we at Versant are asked to look at client plans for how their brands will be positioned, or how the marketing budgets will fare in the upcoming year as costs and channels of communication are examined. It's the same in our VersantWorks practice as we work to help clients recruit or evaluate internal communications efforts as they forecast their needs.

It is also the time of year when Versant plans ahead.

This weekend we begin a series of meetings to look at our own future. In these Q4 planning retreats, we examine ourselves and ask what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong. In our business, it's pretty easy to identify what isn't working because it takes but a nanosecond for a client to point out the bad. Fortunately, we do more than post a banner in our office that says "Service is Marketing." We try to live that mantra, but as humans, we have to work out occasional snags.

Personally, I set my own lens to a wonderful saying from a futurist I studied a few years ago. She said something like this: The future isn't inevitable. It is inventable. How does that translate into what we're going to try to be and do in 2007?

First we must align all of our talented and unique Versant associates to the goals of the business. Inventable is in the hands of our people (easier said than done, we know, because many of our clients hire Versant to help them do the very same thing). We will examine how well we've communicated our purpose (mission) and direction (vision). In maintaining the clarity of our own brand, we face the same challenges as anyone else. However, without a clear understanding of our brand, we certainly can't be as effective in helping clients better define theirs. If the future is inventable, we have to know what kind of a future we want.

Next we'll ask for input on how the marketplace has changed and what we've learned this year in order to be flatter and faster next year. Where do we have redundant costs or inefficiencies? Where do improvements need to be made in order to be better? We do not spend our strategy sessions on only negative experiences, but focus much of our energy to being open and constructive as we look objectively at the business.

Most importantly, and maybe the hardest of all, we will listen. Everyone at this firm touches a client and has ideas. Rank does not drive ideas, customers do. We'll listen to what our associates are suggesting in order for us to be more successful in 2007.

I'll let you know how these sessions are going. Fast, flat but fun are the key to our upcoming year in my view. Let's face it... business is tough – on clients and on us. But I never forget how lucky I am that our business is the relationship business. If we grow deep and trusting relationships with really smart and determined people serving markets that need effective solutions in branding and marketing, as well as great employee communications/recruitment marketing, we'll have a bright future.