A rather large image of David Allison graces the cover of the magazine’s August/September issue, while a pieced together, life-sized version of the cover that the team had a little fun with – think eye patch and pirate goatee – is plastered on the boardroom wall.

BC Homes Magazine is the only province-wide magazine that keeps readers informed about B.C.’s residential construction industry, and we’re honoured to have been recognized for our work.

David will be the guest speaker at the upcoming award luncheon to be held September 24, 2010 at the Coast Coal Harbour Hotel (1180 West Hastings St.). Registration will begin at 11:30 followed by lunch at 12 p.m. and David’s keynote address at 1p.m.

Tickets are $75 and can be purchased here, or by calling the CHBA BC office at 604.432.7112

So we thought we’d try something new. If you text “david” at 82422, you’ll receive David’s mobile business card and a recommended monthly reading list.

Here’s what has caught our attention recently:

What Does A Viral Video Cost And How Do You Make One?

We’re big believers in video – if it’s done right. A great post reminding us all that it takes more than just a camera and an idea to create, produce and launch a viral video.

Survey: Most Audiences to Get Information from Mobile Devices

Agreed. A phone is so much more than a communication piece, and there are some helpful stats in this post to back that up.

2010 Logo Design Trends

As a company that works to design creative campaigns for our clients, it’s essential that we stay on top of the latest trends. The headline is self-explanatory.

The big app transition

A very interesting read about old and new media convergence. And a reminder not to get too comfortable. These days, change is the only constant. 

The Best Kept Secret in Social Media

Share content without sending people away from your site. Simple tips with pictures too!

It’s (always) too soon to know for sure

We love posts that get us thinking, and Seth Godin has a knack for it. Enough said.

Altered States: Times Square Billboard Crowdsources Content, Disrupts Reality

Using high-tech surveillance cameras and computer vision technology, Forever 21’s billboard actually interacts with crowds in Times Square. Wow. This is social media on an entirely new level.

Here at Braun/Allison Inc. we truly believe that even in this fast-paced-always-bleeping-digital-age, traditional forms of media can still be very powerful. Combined with mobile campaigns, Facebook ads, blogs and the next newfangled marketing gizmo, traditional advertising, signage, brochures, etc., etc. are an important marketing tool.

The funny thing is, the realm of what constitutes traditional media keeps expanding as new stuff rolls in, so we’re constantly questioning what works. Today, marketing professionals largely agree that talking about e-mail as a traditional media makes sense.

That said, we’re big e-mail believers. It’s a direct message to a prospective buyer on a personal level. We’re seeing great results from this old-fashioned traditional tool on behalf of several clients. Here’s someone else who agrees: great post.

Today, with everyone everywhere talking all at once, a slow and steady progression towards achieving expert status in your chosen niche is a smart strategy. It doesn’t matter if you are selling real estate or running shoes.

BuzzBuzzHome is one of the organizations who got the memo. They are an online service that is passionate about helping real estate shoppers find homes that are newly built. They blog about it, they tweet about it, they post listings for new developments on their website, they have a new search engine that makes it easier to find the things you are looking for.

And before anyone asks, no, I do not have a vested interest of any kind in this group. I just think they stand as a great example, with lessons for all of us.

Two great lessons for all businesses are immediately apparent; but there are more to find on your own.

Lesson number one: You could always go to the MLS service for your area and find some new home inventory listed there. But the easy availability of complete and robust information on new home projects has always been a gap in the information market for new homebuyers. BuzzBuzzHome fills that gap.

What’s the gap in your market? What’s the void in terms of information that you can fill?

Lesson number two: Keep innovating, and keep being fresh. BuzzBuzzHome is constantly updating the site, sending out newsletters, and using social media like puppet-masters pulling the strings that make the whole system perform.

When’s the last time you updated your blog? When’s the last time you said something about your niche that wasn’t directly about selling your stuff?

Even if you aren’t working in the new home real estate marketing game, BuzzBuzzHome is an online business that you can learn from. My suggestion? Follow them. On Twitter and Facebook and via RSS feed and everywhere else you can find. (They make it easy to be a fan!) And watch. Lurk in the corner and see how they do it.

Then take those lessons and use them for your next project: be it real estate or running shoes or ragout sauce or rat traps.

That’s one of the best things about the marketing revolution we are all living through right now. The people who are doing it best are the ones you can learn from easiest. Be a digital anthropologist, get out there, spy on the leaders, and apply what you learn to your own organization. It’s like a free online course in marketing. You’d be silly not to enroll.

A good story is essential to creating a compelling marketing campaign. Stories are the currencies of relationships, and it’s vital to exchange this currency if you want people to trust you and your brand. But in this fast-paced, multi-tech world that we live in people aren’t always willing to spend the time to listen to a story, let alone read one.

You need to be engaging with your story and be able to tell it in a swift and simple way, which seems like a bit of a conjuring trick. A meaty story jam-packed with loads of information tends to lose, well, the meat when it’s transferred into something quick and compact.

But there is good news. The magic behind all of those high-tech fancy gadgets, user-friendly apps, and peer-sharing models that have changed the way we live our lives and made everyone’s attention span shrink to the length of a Tweet is that they can help us tell these stories not only quickly, but effectively.

Video, especially, takes a complicated story and gets it across fairly simply. By way of example, here’s something Braun/Allison did that we think is pretty cool.

As the web moves towards video and mobile technology continues to improve video capabilities, video is only going to get bigger, so why not hop on and ride the reel, so to speak? We had fun with it.