SPINE began working with ITA during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s. At the time, ITA was vowing to revolutionize an industry—but so was every other Internet startup. The difference is that ITA actually delivered on its promise.

Back then, the company was comprised of a few computer science graduates from MIT. They had devised an advanced new algorithm to simplify online travel planning, but the company needed help turning this knowledge into a product and marketing it. That’s when ITA approached SPINE.

One of our primary tasks was to make ITA’s technology more user-friendly. We interviewed potential customers and users at the onset of product development to provide a solid structure for the application.

SPINE also helped ITA establish its brand. We designed the corporate identity ITA still uses today, which combines the “@” symbol with an airplane contrail. We also developed a communications system that allowed the startup to present itself to the marketplace with a high level of professionalism.

ITA’s product was a breakthrough success and the company quickly established itself as a technology leader. Before long, it was providing software solutions for major airlines and travel websites including U.S. Airways and Orbitz. Now ITA is becoming part of Google’s ever-growing Internet empire, and we couldn’t be happier for our former client’s success.

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STAMFORD, CT—March 9, 2010—Responding to the recent rebound in IPO activity, SPINE marketing communications has expanded its investor communications department. The move is also designed to meet the growing demand among public companies—both new and established—for greater value in their Annual Report design and production.

SPINE’s (www.spinellc.com) new team of specialists includes marketing and investor communications experience at public companies. A major reason for the expansion is to provide customized client service to guide newly minted IPOs through the complex process of developing an Annual Report.

“At SPINE, we understand that newly public companies may be intimidated by the Annual Report process,” said Glenn Hoffman, principal of SPINE. “We have assembled an experienced and dedicated team to help companies handle the deadlines and detail-oriented aspects of these projects—especially new IPOs that are navigating the process for the first time.”

Whether companies recently went public or were listed years ago, Hoffman said they share a common goal in this tough economic environment: getting the best possible value. SPINE helps companies meet this objective by developing high-quality Annual Reports—both print and online—at reasonable rates. The agency’s boutique size keeps overhead low while ensuring senior-level talent is assigned to each project.

“We are able to create a compelling Annual Report within a tighter budget than many marketing communications firms because we are a boutique agency,” Hoffman said. “Our clients know they’ll get informed creativity and responsive, attentive account management for their dollar.”

He added that his agency’s relationships with some of the most successful Private Equity firms and hedge funds in the New York metropolitan area illustrate the trust the financial community places in SPINE.

“This provides our clients with a level of confidence that few marketing communications agencies can offer,” Hoffman said.

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I am excited to introduce a new line of communication to aid our clients’ pursuit of new and interesting ideas. We call it "Mindshare". It is technically a blog, but I really consider it a channel for staying in touch with clients, friends, and others we have enjoyed meeting.

Our goal with this initiative is to introduce new directions of thought, which may manifest in more interesting and engaging marketing solutions for our clients. We have found that during the course of a project, all efforts are typically focused on deadlines and budgets, leaving little room for provocative thought. That is where ”Mindshare” comes into play. Ideally, this blog will introduce concepts which inspire the development of new programs that advance your business. We will discuss buzz terms you may be hearing, present observations from trade shows, and comment on random items of interest – all with the goal of creating mindshare .

In keeping with the blog format, there is an area for you to post feedback, which we strongly encourage because we hope to engage in a dialogue. Everyone at SPINE will take turns writing, but right now we are unsure how often new posts will appear. When you visit, you can sign up to receive alerts whenever the blog is updated. In the meantime, please enjoy the first post – we hope you find it useful.

Glenn

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We’ve all Googled ourselves, some more than others. Perhaps you’ve also Googled your business. But have you ever searched for your company like a potential customer, using only keywords? Was your website high on the list of results?

If your company appears in the top three pages, Congratulations! You are either in a niche segment or spending big money promoting your firm online. But what about the majority of businesses, facing fierce competition, deemed to be irrelevant by Google?

People’s search behaviors reveal how important it is to appear in the first three pages of a result query. In 2006, Jupiter Research found that 62% of searchers clicked on an item listed on the first page, and that number increased to a dramatic 90% by the time they reached page three. This finding may be dated, but you can only guess that these numbers are becoming less forgiving.

How do you improve your placement? Introduce search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM). SEO and SEM are the disciplines a website employs to improve their placement on the results page of a search engine. SEO focuses on the physical parts of your site; content, structure, and links. While SEM focuses on the promotion of your site; press releases, viral marketing, social media and pay per click campaigns.

Successful search engines realize the key to their success is in pairing user’s interests with relevant content. To provide users with the best possible results to their queries, Google, Yahoo! and other search engines deploy automated computer programs – sometimes called “spiders” – across the Internet to read and index websites. This information is processed through algorithms that tell search engines when to include a particular site on result pages.

Well conceived sites are built bottom up, focusing first on the messages to be communicated, followed by determining a corresponding structure, and then the visuals. Ironically, some of the more familiar devices such as flooding meta tags with keywords are perhaps the least influential in the eyes of any search engine in determining relevance, and may actually be more harmful.

The most important characteristics search engines evaluate when determining relevance are: the number of inbound links, the use of keywords and phrases, and the site’s inherent structure. Armed with this knowledge, there are several SEO steps you can take to improve your site’s position in search results. On a recent project, we successfully addressed some of these steps while developing a new website for Virginia Drilling Company (VDC).

With VDC, we requested a list of search terms to be associated with the company. Using this list, we researched which keywords people were actually using and the level of competition among sites vying to be listed in search results for those terms. Based on our findings, we chose about 25 keywords/phrases to work into the VDC site. Next, we dealt with the site’s structure, taking care to ensure search engines could index it quickly and easily. As a result of our efforts, VDC appeared on the very first page of Google’s search results for many of the keywords we targeted.

Depending on your budget and business goals, additional SEO methods are available.
When you’re ready to upgrade to a new site, use SEO to make your web investment work harder for you – and make more people aware of the excellent product or service you provide.

Take the SEO test! Visit a search engine and enter keywords potential customers might use in seeking your products or services. Not satisfied with the results? Contact SPINE !

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I am pleased to report that SPINE did shine — the vast majority of participants described themselves as “very satisfied customers.”

Recognizing that each client has unique needs, and that the services we provide vary from one relationship to another, we chose a cross-section of our client base. We interviewed clients ranging from big public corporations to small privately-held companies, in industries that included shipping, energy, and finance.

The interviews were conducted by an outside resource to ensure an unbiased interpretation of the feedback. The survey was divided into two parts — a quantitative section to assess performance in key areas, and a qualitative section to tease out details to support the numbers.

Summary of findings:

• Clients like working with us and want us to stay in touch more frequently
• SPINE needs to do a better job marketing itself
• Most clients were not aware of the breadth of our services

The report also provided very high numbers in the areas of trust, creativity, accessibility and responsiveness. We take pride in these qualities, because it demonstrates sound business fundamentals and a strong platform to build upon. Not everything in the report was rosy, and the survey pointed out areas that need improvement. We are in the process of analyzing the data and will be implementing some changes over the next few months to address those concerns.

I would like to thank all who participated in the survey. Your feedback, and of course your loyalty, gives us the opportunity to create a business that revolves around your specific needs. We look forward to strengthening our relationship, while producing great work that performs.

Glenn Hoffman

Principal & Creative Director

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