Without a doubt, Lower Dean River Steelhead are – pound-per-pound – the toughest game fish I have ever experienced in my lifetime.

I have fly fished many places for freshwater or saltwater fish, but nowhere have I seen so much beauty as the Dean River in British Columbia, Canada, nor fought a fish as strong as their famous steelhead trout.

Now, I go on fishing trips to take a little breather from the frenzied world of the advertising agency game. I go for the adventure, the camaraderie, and the excitement of fly fishing for game fish. The Lower Dean did not disappoint.

It all really started when my couple of fishing buds and I flew into the town of Bella Coola, a tiny little town nestled in the middle of the impassable, uninhabitable Pacific Costal Mountain Range. The word remote was invented here. It is so remote the HULK went to Bella Coola at the end of the movie to get away from humans. This was just what I had in mind.

At the airport we hopped on a helicopter and flew a half an hour to the fishing lodge on the Lower Dean River just a couple of miles inland from the Pacific Ocean. There is no other way in. The helicopter trip alone made the whole vacation. Skirting in and out of mountain peaks, flying close to sheer cliffs to catch their updrafts in an effort to climb higher so we could make it over the bigger peaks, and looking directly down on high mountain meadows which then dropped away three to five thousand feet straight down was absolutely amazing!

But this is a story about famous steelhead…

Ocean run steelhead have to be stronger and better fighters because of the nasty, fish-eat-fish environment out in the Pacific Ocean. That alone makes them stronger than freshwater fish.

Also, we fished just 2 to 6 miles away from the Pacific Ocean so they were very “fresh.”

The most beautiful, remote territory I have ever experienced.

But the reason why the Dean River fish are famous for being tough characters is because, just a few miles from the ocean, they have to swim through a huge, practically impassable gorge. Only the strongest survive. In fact, experts feel the millions of years of the selection process has made the Dean steelhead DNA produce extremely powerful fish. Only 5,500 make it through the gorge each year. Fifty-five hundred of the world’s best!

Coincidentally, the Lower Dean River and the Upper Dean River are separated by a huge waterfall.  Those that overcome the falls are the most genetically powerful. The Upper Dean is not quite as fun to fish because very few fish survive the falls. So you get very few hits a week. Besides, I was still fishing those same fish before they reached the falls. Many say only a Dean fish could ever make the falls because of their excellent natural selection.

It took on average 30 minutes to bring in a 5-6 pounder! I hooked

3-6 a day (not every day) but only landed 1-3 fish a day. Some in the 20-plus pound range, I personally don’t think you can land without a lot of luck and an arm the size of the HULK. They are just that strong. And that smart.

And they fly! Right out of the water. Jump, after jump, after jump. One of the guys had a fish jump 6 feet out of the water. I hooked (I guess) a 10-pound buck who I caught downriver below me, which porpoised past me up the river and then turned around and did three nose-to-tail cartwheels down the stream. I have never seen a fish cartwheel before. I actually kept him on but lost him a few minutes later when he decided he had enough of me and just took off down stream to a big rapid run. And that was the end of that.

My scariest of the week … I got a hit – and they hit real hard – and

nothing moved. No jumping. No movement at all. I tried to pull him toward the bank. No movement. Then slowly he moved parallel across the stream. One light click of the reel at a time. When he got to the other side he stopped and I slowly worked him back over to me. He then stopped again. Would not move. Then he slowly moved across the stream again and when he reached midpoint my fly came out. Don’t know the reason other than he spit it out in disgust.

Now, I don’t know what he looked like or how big he was, but whatever he was, I was nothing to him.

If you know anything about bone fishing I can only say fishing for Bones is like fishing for a wide receiver. Fishing for Dean steelhead is like fishing for a lineman. No, not a linebacker. A fast, tough, I-ain’t-going-to-do-nothing-I-don’t-want-to-do lineman. More like I-am-gong-to-crush-your-fly-rip-your-line-bust-your-gear lineman.

This was a small five to six pounder. They do not tire even after you have landed one.

Every fish I fought struck like he wanted to rip my arm off. Like he wanted to bust my tackle into tiny little pieces. And break me emotionally.

They have incredible energy! When you land one, the second you let go of their tail they are gone! They do not tire even after a long fight. The only one who needed reviving was me.

We caught half our fish on dry flies! Fished dry like a Bomber (we caught them on Atlantic Salmon Bombers and other AS flies - Green Butt Skunk, the Undertaker, etc). Others we fished Canada dry, meaning a grease line … a dry fly fished flipped up on the swing or just under the surface on the swing.

Being located in downtown York, PA, has its advantages. We can walk to our beautiful downtown farmers markets for lunch several days a week. We are part of a vibrant business community committed to improving the downtown environment. And every year, on a Friday in late September, we become “Harley folks” in more ways than one.

For the last two years, our agency was asked to design the official Bike Night T-shirts which are sold by organizers at the event. Harley enthusiasts from around the country now wear our designs with pride. This year’s shirt featured vintage motorcycles like the ones selected to lead this year’s parade.

As the parade time approaches, our office walls shake as the motorcycles cruise into town for BikeNight. In the past, our agency Principal, Mel Campbell, Jr., has ridden in the parade on his 1992 Custom Low Rider. The rest of us make it a point to stake out a parade-watching location (preferably close to cold beverages) and mix and mingle with bikers, biker wannabe’s, old friends and thousands of visitors from around the country. Every walk of life is represented as the street fair progresses. Heavy metal bands play from the courthouse steps. Tell me, where else in the world does THAT happen?

Like the cheese steak restaurant he set his eyes on in a mall food court. Lisa, his wife, winced when she first saw the place.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” she remembers saying. “It was run into the ground. Not only was it filthy and disgusting, the place was nondescript. It had no branding at all.

“I said, ‘We need to close this and revamp totally. I’m going home to call Mark Leinaweaver.’”

Mark is creative director for Campbell, Harrington & Brear. Lisa saw him as the one missing ingredient in this recipe for success.

Mike Tanner, with a degree in hotel/restaurant management, had been operating franchise restaurants for 20 years. “I’m good at turning businesses around,” he says. “It’s what I like to do.” And Lisa, whose father owned and operated many cheese steak and hoagie operations in southeast Pennsylvania, grew up in the business.

They could take care of creating the clean, bright site and the authentic Philly cheese steaks, featuring Philly rolls made fresh daily, 100 percent rib-eye steak, high quality cheese (or Cheez Whiz), and the freshest chopped onions. They could even take care of naming it – Lisa’s brother Jimmy, who operates his own restaurant, suggested Philly Boyz^TM to unanimous approval.

But someone had to give this new restaurant a brand identity. “Lisa told Mark that we needed a new look – a franchise look,” says Mike. And Mark, collaborating with Senior Designer Kristina Heilman, brought the Philly Boyz to life.

Using eye-catching colors – referred to by Mark as “black and Cheez Whiz” – the CH&B design team created a look that was immediately embraced. “We all loved the look and the colors,” says Mike. Adds Lisa, “It’s fresh. Crisp. Different. It’s a fun look.”

That look carries over into the menu boards, signage, uniforms, and promotional handouts. Mark then played a key role in keeping the process moving by serving as liaison with both the mall and the mall’s management company. “Mark did a terrific job, and has been so patient with us,” says Lisa.

After just two weeks of business, Mike says, “I know it’s going to be successful. I can already tell.” Successful enough that this could be the first of many Philly Boyz locations? “You never know,” says Mike.

Posted By: Mel Campbell / President of Campbell, Harrington & Brear

It all starts with a strategic marketing plan.

{Fact #12  … None of these new digital  media tools means a thing without a strategic marketing plan.}

What’s new?  Everything should start with a plan.  But what’s new with digital media is this: A plan is not only basic, it is essential.  Internet media is unique in the sense that all components have to be interconnected or it won’t work.  Because the main purpose for doing any of these things – social networking, blogging, Tweeting, etc. - is to generate Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

Plopping down a new website and scuffling some social networking around won’t get you anywhere.  They must dovetail together.  And they must dovetail together with whatever else your company is doing in advertising and marketing.

Without an interactive plan it is meaningless digital goo.  Eventually you won’t support it, you will grow tired of it, and it will fail.

{Fact #13  … It’s all about SEO!}

It’s all about acquiring search engine page dominance through SEO juice.  Tantalizing all those little spiders crawling the World Wide Web and convincing them to elevate your website to the forefront on page one on Google, Yahoo, and Bing search engines.

Here is how it all operates.  Digital media modules - let’s say a Facebook page, a LinkedIn page, a mobile app, a blog and a microsite – are like interconnected SEO flowers, which produce positive algorithmic SEO pollen, which in turn attracts spiders, which get excited and send traffic to your website, the hub of your company’s online media communications world.

If they are not linked together, or if you don’t have the necessary mix, you won’t achieve the desired SEO power.

{Fact #14  … If you think the digital media world is all about the power of social networking, you are completely wrong.}

Social networking gets all the buzz.  Facebook this, Facebook that, LinkedIn blah, blah, blah.  Yes, Facebook can build some loyalty to well-targeted audiences, stirs word-of-mouth, increases name recognition and affords the opportunity to go viral.  LinkedIn and Plaxo are good congregation spots for business exposure.  And Twitter can help some businesses add value to loyal followers.  But here is the big secret:  In my view, social networking media’s real value is to add SEO to your website.

Your company website is your most important digital media tool and one of your company’s top marketing and advertising weapons.  It’s the aircraft carrier.  Your mothership of corporate communications.  To clients and customers, it’s your pre-purchase screener, your knowledge base and post-buy support.  It’s your all, your everything, your precious.

But your website can be rendered worthless if it doesn’t have Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  If it is not on the first page on Google, Yahoo, Bing or whatever, it’s as if it doesn’t exist.

{Fact #15  … New Media is not cheap.  Run from anyone who tells you it is.}

Interactive media is not cheap just like publicity is not “free.”

Many, many people think the great benefit of digital media is it is cheap.  The messiah of inexpensive advertising.  They believe the new digital world will be full of inexpensive tools to market their company.

It is a huge myth, probably fostered by the fact that anyone with a little time on their hands can set up a Facebook, LinkedIn or Plaxo page.  At no cost.

Or, maybe it’s because many people think digital media is a guerrilla marketing tool, hence inexpensive.

A good website, supported by new media advertising, social networking, SEO, SEM, etc., is not inexpensive.  For them to work effectively, they are going to cost real money.  It is what you do with these tools that matters.  Set-up maybe inexpensive, but if not used properly, you are wasting your time.  And money.

So if you are getting into new media only because you think it is a cheap way to promote your business or because it is cheaper than some traditional forms of advertising, you will receive a result in proportion to your financial input.  Appropriately, not much.

{Fact #16  … Internet media does not supplant traditional advertising media; it supplements traditional advertising.}

This is worth repeating.  New Media does not supplant traditional advertising media, it supplements traditional advertising.  Digital media adds a few more arrows to the advertising quiver.  TV commercials are not going away.  Radio commercials are here to stay.  You will still be receiving direct mail pieces and seeing billboards on the highways.  Why?  Because traditional media is very potent stuff.  Social networking can’t touch the power of TV.  It can’t outshine the selling chutzpah of radio or the top-of-mind branding of outdoor either.

What’s really important is the combination of the two: It’s all about how you get your social networking program working with your TV advertising. With your trade advertising.  With your microsite’s sampling program.  And most importantly, how you coordinate your traditional advertising with your website.

Traditional media is so important that Google recently announced traditional media – radio advertising, TV, outdoor - will now affect your SEO on Google.  Whoa!

{Fact #17  … Now more than ever you need a single source vendor that sees the whole picture.}

The onslaught of the new digital world has brought a myriad of choices for reaching your audiences, but it has caused confusion as well.

Here is some advice.  Stick to your core business and hire a good company that understands the full parameters of what New Media can do for your business.  A company that has broad experience in all forms of advertising. A company that has a good overview of everything.  A company that can guide you through this new and ever-changing landscape.

Partner with someone you can trust.  Make damn sure they have the marketing power and the geek horsepower to do the work.  All-inclusive in one company or with two companies that already work together.

Going piecemeal to multiple vendors will bring additional confusion to an already confusing situation.

{Fact #18  …  Your business needs to construct contemporary strategies, integrating new and traditional media components, to profit in this new world.}

I personally feel companies receive greater value working with an advertising agency.  Using a web developer only gets you a website, not insight.

Ad agencies are big picture people.  Strategists.  Brand conscious.  Even if they just do your website, you will get value added information and service based on their broad capabilities and experience.  They will support it, add content to your different media, and keep it coordinated with all your marketing and advertising efforts.

So there it is.  You now have some facts about digital media, and hopefully you now understand the dark side pitfalls of this new world.

Just think, a year from now some of the things talked about in this series will be gone.  And something we never thought of will appear.

It is time to step out on to the cliff.

Jump.

Let’s face it, if you are the slightest tech savvy you were barely grasping the many new and exciting features of websites … RSS feeds, blogs, galleries, forums, analytics, microsites.  Then, no sooner did you hear about a PURL when e-blasts popped up and someone mentioned SEO.  Then SEM.  Then, wow, social networking became the rage with Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, when bam, Twitter hit the vernacular. Well guess what, mobile marketing is now exploding here in the states and QR code is coming on strong.  QR code?

Oh, and let’s not forget digital media hybrids.  The real “workhorses” like online print ordering for all internal forms, reports and documents; databases; FTP sites; direct-to-print, digital archiving, and e-commerce.

How does someone keep up with all of it?  The answer?  No one person can.

{Fact #8  … No single person knows and understands everything about the new digital world. No one.}

Even the best ad agencies that have been up on things since the beginning and the geekiest of geek organizations can’t keep up with it.  You can literally go to a full-day seminar every week and not acquire a complete understanding of what is possible in today’s new world.

{Fact #9 … Don’t look to IT for the answers.  They don’t understand all the nuances of new media either.}

And you can’t look to your IT department for answers either.  IT is busy with IT.  Most of their energy and time is consumed with tracking changes in IT; monitoring the new digital media world is out of the question.  Besides, they are not knowledgeable about marketing, nor do they care very much about it.

So, if you are never going to understand it all, and help from IT will be minimal at best, and there are very few “experts” to advise you, where does that leave you?  Here it comes … You will have to choose your vendor on a leap-of-faith: Oh so completely foreign to sound business practices.  Plus, leap-of-faith is the last thing you want to do when you understand the landscape is fraught with vendors misrepresenting themselves and misinforming clients.  But that is how it is going to get done.

{Fact #10 … If you think you can do it yourself, you have a fool for a client.}

It all boils down to acquiring the best digital media partner you can find.  They may not be perfect, that’s okay.  Just make sure they are not one of the interlopers or false prophets I have described earlier in this series.

I would suggest a partner that can develop a strategic plan.  One who has in-house capabilities to produce the many new media tools – websites, microsites, e-blasts, etc.   More importantly, a group that has vision and can advise you on all your alternatives, offerings available within those alternatives, and which should come first.

{Fact #11 … Many companies say, “I need a website”;  What they actually need is a comprehensive web strategy.}

One last word of caution.  Be very clear about your expectations.  Vendors know you don’t know everything.  And you can’t.  So tell them what you expect the “products” to do.  What you want to accomplish with these new media choices.  How you see your business world improving through this partnership.  That way they can’t short-change you with geek speak.

Welcome to the new digital age of communication, or “New Media” as it is called (presently transitioning to Interactive Media, Digital Media or Internet Media). You know, websites, digital archiving, e-commerce, jumpdrive marketing, FTP sites, social media advertising, whatever.

As a business person, you have a gut feeling that you need to enter this new world of electronic digital media sooner than later.  That is a correct assumption.

But, on the other hand, you don’t know enough about this new world to make an informed decision on how to be a part of it.  That too is correct.

{Fact #5 … If you are waiting for all the information before you make your move it will never happen!}

So where do you go from here?  To answer that question you first need to know the playing field.  Specifically the pitfalls, or in the case of the Digital Media “gold rush,” the landmines.  We have all heard much about the good ways in which “New Media” is going to benefit our companies and lives, but very little about its dark side and the “Nazgûl Night Riders” who are out selling products and services to your business.

Here is where you are today Mr. and Ms. Businessperson.

Not in my 37 years in the advertising/marketing industry have I ever
seen so much misinformation, disinformation, misrepresentation, unethical behavior, and outright scamming than I have in the past year or so.  It is just the tip of the iceberg, and it is only going to get worse before it gets better.

So where’s the danger?  Everywhere.  But here are three significant groups to look out for.

{Fact #6 … There are so many quick, doodad, New Media tools, very little attention is focused on the big picture.  The big picture is the most important part!}

First, the opportunist.  He or she has learned enough hot button words to make a sale, but can’t deliver on the promise.  They usually represent a small shop of two to four people.  They keep their pricing moderate, promise much and deliver little.  They can only offer a slice of what is truly necessary.  In and out, but who cares?  They are only in it for the quick financial gain.  You think you got a deal, but the reality is you accomplished nothing.

Second, the companies who traditionally provided New Media services, but failed to keep up with what was happening.  There are many, many advertising agencies, web developers, printers, design studios and marketing firms, of all sizes and shapes, metro to small town, who got caught with their pants down.  Over the past number of years they may have offered some New Media production services, like web design, but they failed to recognize the recent new media onslaught as a game changer.  Like everyone else they learned a little bit, but continued on with their traditional business.  Mostly print.

BAM!  In the blink of an eye the digital world unfolded and many of these businesses did not have the knowledge base to perform the services necessary to join the new era.  Now they are either out of business or are out selling themselves as New Media experts to survive.  Unfortunately for you, they can only talk the talk.

Third, the dying industries.  The industries who have felt it coming for years but are now at the Pearly Gates.  For newspapers, the Yellow Pages, many printers, and some publishers, it’s over.  The danger to you is they are quickly reinventing themselves and now marketing themselves as experts in fields they know nothing about.  Newspapers are web developers, web advertisers, your digital expert source.  Yellow Pages is selling SEO and SEM services.   Even printers are entering the SEO, SEM business.  Desperate industries do desperate things.  Avoid being a victim in their decline.

{Fact #7 … If companies selling “New Media” services haven’t been eating, sleeping, speaking and doing new media for the past four years they have no idea what is going on today.  And will never catch up!}

If nothing else, know this.  If the New Media companies you are dealing with or going to work with haven’t been researching, studying, discussing and developing any of these “New Media” tools on a regular basis for at least the last four years they don’t know and will not know what this new digital era is all about.  Run from them.

So what do you do?