The Stories Behind YHA Gold
By Amy Spach. Principal of AS Written Communications, Amy works with attorneys and law firms to create Web and marketing content that strengthens their practice and public profiles. Contact her at www.aswrittencom.com or 323.876.6374.
Whatever law marketing teams are eating and drinking in New England, let’s bottle it.
A critical mass of firms in the Boston area took home first place awards for marketing excellence at the Legal Marketing Association’s Your Honor Awards presented at the LMA 2008 annual conference in Los Angeles.
A record number of entry submissions - around 350 – vied for the 21 top prizes.
While many number one nods went to familiar megafirms, recognition was spread across firms of all sizes and geographic location. Examples of the finalists work are available in the LMA showcase pdf and a winners list appears at the end of this article.
AWARD TRENDS
Noticeable trends among the finalists include an infusion of popular culture, preference for modern, clean design and a reliance on internal talent. Exemplifying leveraging in-house resources is the media relations award winner Pillsbury Winthrop. After transforming their PR efforts wholly into a staff function, Sandi Sonnenfeld, director of public relations, saw negative press coverage decline by more than 85% and costs decrease by 66%.
Highlights and behind-the-scenes insight from winners include:
BE BOLD
Identity and Advertising Winners – Bingham McCutchen
When Hank Shafran, director of communications for the Boston-based global firm, saw the identity campaign’s signature orange color spontaneously appearing in offices firmwide, he knew the new look was a winner. Reflecting the firm’s modernity, energy and meteoric growth, Bingham’s new identity and supporting advertising campaigns realized a 250% increase in web traffic and multiple accolades.
Both winning projects used a blend of internal talent and outside help, including from Selbert Perkins Design. The bold advertising campaign, notable for a bear cuddling a baby, caught the fancy of Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert and caused him to name Bingham the number two threat to America. Shafran jokingly predicted that the firm would not rest until they were bumped up to the nation’s top threat. Consider yourself warned.
PREPARE YEAR ROUND
Annual Report Winner - Preti Flaherty
Creating opportunity was the theme of this New England firm’s annual report and it lived up to its title. Elonide Semmes, president of Right Hat and long-time design consultant to the firm, explained that this year’s winning entrant was a powerful combination of strong visuals and engaging, tone-perfect copy.
The report is a marketing cornerstone for the firm that tells client stories and serves as a compelling cross-selling tool. Semmes says that when they first started the annual report, good stories were hard to gather. But now they receive success tales throughout the year and enjoy an embarrassment of riches to choose from when annual report time rolls around.
WALK THE TALK
Promotional and Collateral Material (Other) Winner –
Sedgwick Detert Moran Arnold
Imagine your clients clamoring to be in ads for your firm. This is not a fantasy for Sedgwick but their new reality, due in large part to the success of an internal promotional campaign for the firm’s Women’s Forum that did everything right.
Director of marketing Kathleen Flynn led her staff team, plus long-time photographer Michael Rubottom, in a campaign that reached out, humanized, personalized and celebrated female clients and attorneys. The cost of bringing to life the holy grail of marketing - client relationships – was between $50-75,000 and yielded a return on investment several times over.
Originally intended as board displays for events, the light-hearted, energy-filled ads are now put to use externally and in office display and serve as client gifts and a generator of goodwill.
“Use it once, use it twenty times,” says Flynn who recognizes that quality enjoys a long shelf life. She also learned that if you feature associates in an ad, remember that associates leave, so secure a few backup candidates on reserve. Beyond the phenomenal level of client excitement about this campaign, Flynn also enjoyed the validation of its success, and the irony involved, when male clients and attorneys asked for their share of the limelight.
TIMING
Exhibit Trade Show/ Novelty Winner - Hamilton Brook Smith & Reynolds
How do you compete with the 800-pound gorillas when you are a local small IP boutique and the big biotech conference is coming to Boston?
Get in early, says winner Audra Callanan, director of marketing for the Concord, Massachusetts firm.
Three weeks prior to the conference, Callanan’s team sent select conference attendees clever, customized, well-crafted yet inexpensive conference survival boxes. Inside were simple city and pharma-themed items, such as fun, prescription-style candy pills to protect against succumbing to a Boston accent. This spirited, pre-conference outreach cut through the hype and noise early on and reached a captive audience in a memorable fashion. It was more than just a cute gimmick – the marketing push directly led to new clients and substantial revenues
Chapter Award Winner - NYLMA
Marketing to marketers has its own unique challenges and LMA’s NY chapter demonstrated how to do it right.
When new attorney advertising rules created uncertainty in the New York legal marketing community, the chapter took the lead and presented a webinar that established them as the first and authoritative source on the subject. Webinar attendance broke records, expanded the chapter’s target audience and helped bump chapter membership by 30%. Past president Andrea Stimmel credits strategic teamwork and preparation within the chapter for the project’s success.
DEADLINE DRIVEN INGENUITY
Single Print Ad Winner - Holme Roberts & Owen
When creative director Heather Nanstiel received a last minute request for a quick turnaround ad on diversity for The Recorder, a legal newspaper, she knew a photo session wasn’t in the timeline. To meet the press deadline and still achieve a quality product, she searched stock photography files and found the perfect image – rows of multicolored chairs.
“Diversity does really mean everyone having a seat at the table,” explained Nanstiel about the fortuitous find which only cost $10. She took the image, supported it with content that furthered the firmwide message and created a single ad that has become part of the firm Web site and taken on a life of its own. Big bang for ten bucks.
PUT YOUR ATTORNEYS TO WORK
Promotional Events and Training Winners - Goulston Storrs
The two awards given to this Boston firm were for marketing projects that showcased their attorneys in a new light.
The firm’s promotional event honor was for re-creating the game show Jeopardy at a regional Association of Corporate Counsel event. Lawyers and clients teamed together and hit the buzzers in a meeting that was educational, fun and forged new client ties.
Critical to its success, according to Theresa Bomba, manager of marketing and communications, was unifying the project team members, overcoming attorney reticence and having an ace IT department to execute the logistics of the interactive game. Bomba calls the project “very low cost with priceless long-term value.”
Goulston & Storrs also scored top prize in the training area. As part of their internal University program, attorneys appeared as actors in videos that demonstrate how to avoid business development mistakes. Produced by communications consultant Marsha Redmon, the internal video vignettes were realistic reenactments customized to the firm’s culture that caught and taught its intended audience - firm attorneys.
A LOOK AHEAD
Within the Web site category finalists, a high level of sophistication and an increasing use of video on Web sites were evident. The triumphant Greenfield Belser-designed site for Boston’s Choate Hall & Stewart LLP, had a distinctive You Tube style that the judges noticed.
One YHA judge, Per Casey, president of technology developer Tenrec, anticipates even more innovative video and digital resources in law firms’ futures. But he notes that technology is no substitute for good story telling if you want to snag a Your Honor Award.
“The descriptions on the entry forms are crucial. Judges review a high volume of material in a short time and we really look to the submission cover sheet to draw us in,” he explained. Sadly, according to Casey, some good work was disqualified because questions were unanswered or guidelines not followed.
To all the winners, congratulations. Enjoy your victories, thank you for teaching by example and we eagerly wait to see what you have for us next year.
Your Honors Awards 2008 Winners
- Identity Bingham McCutchen LLP
- Brochure Foley Hoag LLP
- Annual Report Preti Flaherty.
- Announcement (Holiday Card) Bass, Berry & Sims PLC
- Promotional Material (Other) Sedgwick Detert Moran & Arnold LLP
- Single Ad Holme Roberts & Owen LLP
- Ad Campaign Bingham McCutchen LLP
- Multi-Media Campaign Goldberg & Simpson PSC (Fishman Marketing)
- Exhibits/Trade Show/Novelty Hamilton, Brook, Smith & Reynolds, P.C
- Promotional Events Goulston & Storrs
- Firm, Practice or Industry Site Choate Hall & Stewart LLP
- Electronic Media Morrison & Foerster LLP
- Media Relations Pillsbury Winthrop, Shaw Pittman
- Community Relations Adams and Reese LLP
- Internal Communications Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP
- Training Goulston & Storrs
- Research and Intelligence Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff LLP
- Recruiting Morrison & Foerster LLP
- Chapter NYLMA
- Business Development Foley Hoag LLP
- Best in Show Fishman Marketing for International Lawyers Network
Authors: Amy Spach
Published Date: 03/24/2008