Bob Lokkenis the founder and CEO of WhiteCloud Analytics, a Boise-based software/consulting company focused on decision support for hospitals. Bob was previously founder and CEO of ProClarity Corp., winner of over 40 industry awards for analytic and performance management technologies. Bob authored the key patents behind ProClarity’s market leading technology. In May 2006, ProClarity was acquired by Microsoft. Afterwards, Bob led the development of the commercial strategy for Microsoft’s business intelligence offerings. Bob is a frequent keynote speaker at industry conferences and a guest lecturer for Executive MBA programs on the use of analytics to drive business results.
“Lounging Series” events provide a question/answer forum, giving young professionals exposure to decision makers and community leaders. These events are held at the Visual Arts Collective and provide a great atmosphere for networking with local young professionals and learning from influential leaders in the Boise metro region.
Congrats to us @ Peppershock! 1st place in the Public Service Announcement category for the Idaho Department of Education PSA’s “I Use it Everyday” at the Idaho Press Club Awards. Special thanks to Melissa McGrath at the Idaho Department of Education for entering us!
http://idahopressclub.org/Website/Best-of-2008-Awards.html
View the award winning spots.
Produced for the Idaho State Department of Education
These PSA’s are promoting the use of math in every walk of life…geared towards students and parents.
Introduction to Math Initiative
Our goal is to develop a Math Initiative that will focus on improving math education in all grades to ensure every student is prepared for higher levels of math in the middle grades, high school, post-secondary, and work-force setting.
Produced for the Idaho State Department of Education
Peppershock is proud to be working with Handyman Connection of Boise. See their latest project from start to finish below.
With dogs, kids and the fast paced life of the Steele family, their poor hardwood floors didn’t stand a chance. Watch the before and after transformation as Handyman Connection turns these floors into a functional, durable part of everyday life at the Steele household.
The Idaho Department of Commerce unveiled a new promotional video on March 25, meant to expand viewers’ perceptions of the state beyond its “Famous Potatoes.”
Entitled “Idaho… Business is Easy Here,” the six-minute film features interviews with officials from Hoku, which is building a polysilicon plant near Pocatello; Areva, the French-owned nuclear services firm that hopes to build a uranium enrichment facility outside Idaho Falls; Eagle-based robotics company Ugobe; and others. The video also includes a few computer generated potato characters to provide a little comic relief.
“We want to round out the image people have of Idaho and help them discover the reason this state has topped a number of national rankings for business and entrepreneurial growth,” Commerce Director Don Dietrich stated in a release. “Many states have economic development videos; we wanted to have a little fun with ours and make it memorable,” he said.
The film was produced by R Squared Digital Media, Eagle; Peppershock Media Productions, Nampa; WideEye Productions, Boise; Area O2, Eagle; and the commerce department. Shot in high-definition, the film cost around $16,000 to produce and was paid for with about $10,000 from the Idaho Potato Commission and $6,000 from the commerce department.
(Editorial note…script written by Travis Swartz…Olson Johnson played by Travis Swartz…voice by Travis Swartz)
On April 14th at the Nampa Civic Center at 7am – to Noon,
A key group of panelists from Treasure Valley will address
the growing challenges health care providers and consumers
face, what universal health care could mean, and the growing
impact of charity care and bad debt on a stressed health system.
The cost to attend is just $25 per person, and includes
breakfast. To Register for this important event call 463-5876
or email healthforum@ierh.org
Panelists include:
Ed Dahlberg
CEO of St. Luke’s Health System
Joe Messmer
CEO of Mercy Medical Center
Doug Dammrose, MD
Blue Cross of Idaho - Chief Medical Officer
John Stellmon
President of Regence BlueShield of Idaho
Tom Patterson, MD
Saltzer Medical Group - Immunization Coalition
Senator John McGee
Senate Health and Welfare Committee
Moderator
Dee Sarton - Idaho’s News Channel 7
The Health Care Education Breakout sessions will include:
Worksite Wellness
Employee Health Plans
Health Insurance 101
And the Impact of Legislative Actions in Real Life
Come and hear from Coach Peterson as he shares his personal
experience about the impact medical care had on his son’s
ability to heal.
The Health Care Reality Forum.
Navigating through today’s health care trends, costs,
utilization and the forecast of the Treasure Valley’s
health care delivery.
Six young, politically involved panelists discuss transportation, air quality and urban renewal issues facing Boise, the Treasure Valley and the entire state of Idaho. They also talk about how they got into politics and how young professionals can get involved.
Panelists:
1. Cece Gassner - Economic Development Director, City of Boise
2. Jason Kreizenbeck - Chief of Staff, Office of Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter
3. Steve Kren - Idaho Representative (R-Nampa), Member of the
House Environment, Energy and Technology Committee
4. John McGee - Idaho Senator (R-Caldwell), Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee
5. Mckinsey Miller - Associate, Gallatin Public Affairs
A lot has been made out of establishing the differences between public relations and advertising, but where do the two meet? For starters, if they aren’t meeting for you at all, you’re not making the most out of the potential relationship you could be enjoying. And when they do meet, like the old axiom goes: opposites attract. The happy marriage of the seemingly separate public relations and advertising services is the beginning of a beautiful business relationship.
While it’s important to make the most out of your advertising dollars, great public relations should pick up where advertising leaves off. Maximize your potential R.O.I (Return on Investment) by increasing the number of impressions you make on your customer, increasing the number of messaging vehicles at your disposal, and increasing your expected response rate. These are all gains that can be procured through harmonious advertising and public relations partnerships.
Where advertising space is purchased and delivered, public relations provides you with free coverage and additional promotions after your advertisements have made a splash in the community. Activate your target audiences interest and motivation with a creative ad campaign, and then give them the facts in a helpful, friendly, and courteous manner with the help of the local media coverage through a PR press release or press kit.
Like every good marriage, the relationship between public relations and advertising is a give and take relationship. Public relations and advertising both have weaknesses that are covered and supported by each other. When suspicious customers shy away from your advertisements, a great public relations endeavor can win them over through documented success stories and substantiated statistics. But, as Rick Segal, CEO of marketing communications firm HSR Business-to-Business says, “One thing PR can’t always do is be everywhere at once in the way that advertising can do.”You must address your audience in the creative methods that attract them, but secure their attention through the media vehicles they know and trust. Make the sort of impression on your community that makes everyone sit-up and take notice. The attention of awards committees and local news venues shouldn’t be a happy accident or a stroke-of-luck; it should be a goal of your over-all marketing campaign.
Not unlike actual marriage, the wellbeing of the happy, functional PR / advertising relationship is deeply rooted in financial stability. In the course of staying viable in the shaky market, many companies have helped assuage their shrinking marketing budgets by getting more mileage from their public relations promotions. As said by Nick Ludlum, VP of Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, “In a recession, people who take a meek approach to marketing, they’re not going to inherit the earth. They are going to be buried six feet underground.”
But above all, the most envied of all the happiest advertising / public relations marriages are those that are the most graceful. A winning combination of advertising and public relations should dance well within the overlapping boarders of self-advertisement and self-promotion. It should know when and how to execute the high-impact advertising that will have your target audience reeling, and when to style and profile for the camera, letting your audience bask in the glow of your charismatic public relations messaging.
Taking advantage of an innovative marketing and creative services firm that is well-networked with public relations companies, like Peppershock, gives you the best possible from both worlds. For more reference information, or to book a date to come a-courtin’, please contact us here at Peppershock Media Productions.
Callahan, Sean. “Marketers stay in the conversation with PR“. BtoB February 9, 2009: 1, 32.
Callahan, Sean. “Marketers stay in the conversation with PR“. BtoB February 9, 2009: 1, 32.
Peppershock Media Productions, LLC is located in Nampa, the heart of the Treasure Valley, near Boise, Idaho. Peppershock has been locally owned & operated since 2003.
Peppershock Media Productions, LLC… serving up high quality digital spice!
In times of economic distress, the survival of small businesses often depends on the communities they do business and form partnerships within. Part of being a community partner means an active participation in the success of the academic pursuits going on in your corner of the world. Fostering healthy relationships with academic institutions like trade schools and universities can be beneficial to the school, the students, your business, and your community. Peppershock Media nurtures one such relationship with Boise State University and the College of Idaho by providing internship opportunities to undergraduates.
The opportunity to intern with Peppershock Media goes a long way towards helping students graduating from BSU or C of I to finding their place in the world by giving them the chance to attain valuable real-world experience. Peppershock Media has given internship positions to students graduating with degrees in English, Creative Writing, Marketing, Graphic Design, Communications, and General Business. The diversity of clients that Peppershock caters to provides our employees and interns with challenges to test their mettle by applying their skills and knowledge in the work place, to create innovative answers to our customer’s requests and issues. Upon the successful completion of an internship, a student has applicable experience and a reference to put into their professional resume, a taste of working in the local economy, the confidence that comes with bringing value into a business paradigm, and occasionally, a new career path. Former Peppershock interns have had all these experiences, and one intern, Allison Roberts, worked out so well that she is now a Peppershock employee.
The resource an intern brings to the company is unbeatable. They are a boon in times of economic distress and interminable budget cuts, as most interns work to fulfill a graduation requirement as opposed to an hourly wage. An intern brings fresh air, a nubile young mind, and a current perspective into the office environment. Businesses that might otherwise become disconnected and bogged down within their own walls are given new life and dynamic new potential. Interns themselves sometimes turn out to be a diamond-in-the-rough, and establishing a working relationship with them before they go out into the workforce can allow a company to snatch a brilliant addition to the team, before other companies have a chance to pick up the prophetic prospect.
To have established roots in the community means giving a helping hand when you are able and taking advantage of the generosity of your community partners, when you need to. Affording an internship position to a student is one way to help out your community, and your company.
Special thanks to Melissa McGrath at the Idaho Department of Education for entering us!
