When Memorial Healthcare System blanketed the nation’s 17th busiest airport with an impactful brand campaign, millions took notice — and awareness took flight in extraordinary new ways.
Wheels Up: Elevating Brand Awareness and Impact
Busy FLL ranks 17th nationwide for overall passenger traffic, serving an estimated 35 million travelers in 2023. There is no higher-visibility venue anywhere in South Florida for a brand to connect so quickly and effectively with millions of residents and visitors.
Memorial Healthcare System and Starmark partnered on a groundbreaking strategy: immerse all of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) in powerful brand imagery and messaging to connect with captive audiences while ensuring impactful top-of-mind healthcare brand presence.
The Flight Plan
The campaign’s strategy included these key objectives:
Garner exclusive healthcare brand presence at FLL with tremendous reach.
Engage existing and potential South Florida healthcare prospects: residents and visitors.
Boost pride among Memorial team members.
Inspire future employees.
Connect with the community.
Preparing For Takeoff
The campaign’s out-of-home installations touted messages of “We Lead” as the base, expanding it further to spotlight how Memorial supports South Florida families at every age and stage, from prenatal through end of life, including many highly specialized areas of expertise.
Right from the start, the campaign positioned Memorial Healthcare System as the total healthcare system solution for South Florida, educating audiences about its full continuum of care at all six hospitals, including the nationally-respected Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital and the innovative Memorial Cancer Institute.
Inviting Audiences On Our Journey
An integral mission was to spotlight real patients and real-world health journeys — assuring that the campaign would resonate emotionally. Scan tags encouraged audiences to discover more about each patient’s story.
The strategy is resonating so successfully, it’s inspiring patients, community and even Memorial staff to rally around the effort on social media.
With an integrated airport strategy and execution, millions will now know that Memorial Healthcare System is the leader for wellness, critical and specialty care in South Florida.
— Jacqui Hartnett, President, Starmark
There were strategic placements throughout all four terminals: tension banners hung at gates; digital screens broadcasting at concourses and in baggage claim areas; LED screens over escalators; and column wraps and soffit takeovers on the concourse walkways.
In for the Landing!
The 52-week paid media program at FLL debuted Memorial Day Weekend 2024 and continues to deliver extraordinary reach to every Memorial target audience, surpassing every other available venue.
As the campaign continues its successful run, Memorial and Starmark are now exploring phase two opportunities to expand the conversation, including a compelling preventive and wellness experience.
8 tips for procurement when sourcing marketing and creative services
We’re an Agile Agency, so we work really differently from the chaos of most advertising firms. And that means we have first hand experience with procurement problems that wrecked their client relationships and marketing projects. And we’re going to share the top ones with you today. These are real situations we’ve experienced with real clients who we’ve inherited from other agencies.
1. Paying your agency based on media commissions.
This is an industry standard that needs to go away. Most agencies are paid a percentage of what they spend on media. Let’s think about that for a second.
You’re essentially incentivizing another company to spend more of your money — by paying them more when they spend more on media. It’s crazy.
We hear this all the time because none of our compensation is based on media commissions. We charge flat fees for managing media because it’s…more fair. Then we get stronger plans and more value add
2. Treating RFPs and BRDs like real plans for success.
Recognize this face? It’s how we look when we read that request for proposal or business requirements document we receive. They are usually very high level, or, so detailed about one specific thing you can hear the authors current frustrations between the lines. But they never create mutual understanding between the company and the firm replying.
Having one person responsible to put together a plan puts everyone in a difficult position. It creates lots of back and fourth, hidden scope, misunderstandings and slow progress. It’s why we always start every project with an agile roadmap created by the team that’s actually going to do the work. And the only goal of that roadmap is “mutual understanding.”
3. Plans that don’t account for change.
I’m sure no one here has ever seen one of marketing’s projects go really, really far over time and really, really far over budget. Change is inevitable. The big problem companies make is creating waterfall plans where this thing has to happen before this thing, which happens before this thing. So when one part of the plan changes, everything changes.
Start with an Agile Roadmap. It’s a way to plan for change by breaking down all projects into smaller deliverables that can be moved, reprioritized and changed without wrecking the entire plan and schedule. We just plan for change in the plan, and when it happens, it’s not a disaster.
4. Thinking the hourly rate is everything.
At the 4As and ANA summit a few weeks ago, someone asked the research head for the Association of National Advertisers how companies should think about price when choosing to work with an agency. He said, “if you’re making a decision as quality-dependent based upon price, you couldn’t be going about it more wrong.”
And that’s true. Marketing that doesn’t work is the most expensive marketing of all because it doesn’t pay for itself in performance. On top of that, agencies can do all sorts of things to get to the hourly rate you want without actually making your project less expensive. Our advice is to stop thinking about hourly rates and agency fees. Make a decision based upon quality of work and chemistry. That will always pay more dividends than an arbitrary hourly rate.
5. Falling in love with the pitch team.
This is a dirty little industry secret. A slick pitch team may win the account, but that team can’t work on every account at the agency. So A lot of agencies have you work with a single point of contact, just one or two account managers will show up on your status calls. Is the team that you fell in love with at the pitch the team that is actually doing the work? Probably not.
But at Starmark, you see the whole team regularly as the team member that writes the scope is also the one that delivers the work. You develop rapport and trust with the whole team of people who are with you from the beginning of a project to the end. You get to know them, and they get to know what you are looking for directly leading to getting it right the first time.
6. Decisions by committee.
We’ve got scope creep, ten review meetings, multiple layers of approval and a timeline that takes weeks and weeks.
Here’s one of the most sure-fire ways to get terrible work back: hire an outside team of marketing experts and then tell them exactly what to do. It’s even worse when you throw in multiple stakeholders whose ideas don’t align, and executive management who has the final say but doesn’t participate in the process until the very end. It’s a recipe for endless changes that wastes lots of time and money.
And the solution is simple: hire people you trust and then trust them to give you good counsel. You wouldn’t hire a lawyer and then tell her how to run your case? Or a doctor. Your marketing team has just as much experience and specialized skill as those professions.
7. Not having honest conversations about budget.
Here’s a look at what happens when you don’t have up-front conversations about budget. We start out with sky-high expectations – something you want, and something we want to deliver – and then end up with something that barely works. Remember, in marketing, there’s never just one way to meet a goal. Maybe there’s a way to get there over a slightly longer time if there’s slightly less money. Maybe it just requires a more novel approach to get there.
Pro-tip: when we know the budget, we solve the problem to give you the biggest bang for your buck. When we don’t know the budget, it’s a hope and a prayer.
8. Not testing your work.
Here’s a good one, your agency says to you “Here are three options, which do you like best?” or maybe “Here are three options, this is the one we like best, what do you think?”, and, you like a different one, so they recommend you frankenstein the best parts together into an entire new options. Or the worst of all, you and your agency agree on the best ad, which finally goes up the chain to the top exec, and “they don’t like it”.
Our answer: Don’t take our word for it. Test with your target customer along the way. Present creative with the test results. It provides an objective basis for making marketing decisions — and helps us get to the right answer faster.
Creating an Inspiring Push for Future Pumas
Going into the 2024-25 academic year, Valencia College had new enrollment targets, a new president and a new Agency of Record in Starmark. And for prospective students, we needed to create a campaign to answer the needs of the post-pandemic era with an attitude to make Valencia College the go-to choice for students of all ages and life stages.
Together, we created a multichannel ad campaign to address the real, current emotional motivators for older students looking for training, traditional students who doubt their capabilities and parents who have an outsized voice in education decisions.
The Assignment: Show That Valencia College is the Answer
Located in Central Florida, Valencia College is dedicated to offering Associate-level and some Bachelor’s-level degrees, Accelerated Skills Training and high-quality language learning programs. It’s a model for the future of college education where a 100% acceptance rate gives every student a chance to be successful, regardless of financial support, time or family encouragement. In addition to the typical college student just out of high school, much of the Valencia College student population are working adults, busy parents or the first in their family to go to college.
Understanding Different Student Mindsets
Valencia College had years of enrollment statistics and first-hand accounts from students to help the Starmark team understand the demographic makeup of this unique population. We wanted to create a concept in which all these incredibly diverse students could see themselves succeeding. The concept needed to embrace the ethnic diversity of the student body and the surrounding community. It needed to address students at different life stages — as well as parents. It also needed to be versioned for the school’s three main offerings: degree-seeking (credit) programs, CEL (continuing education language) programs and AST (Accelerated Skills Training) programs.
Benefit Testing
But beyond the demographic differences between prospects — characteristics like age, race and primary language — the Starmark team wanted to understand the varying mindsets and barriers that would influence decision-making for different students.
Across the board, we found anxieties played a much larger part in student decisions to attend or not attend college than before the pandemic. Additionally, there were marked differences between first-generation college aspirants and those whose parents went to college. In particular the top concerns and level of concern were different — with first-gen students reporting a greater degree of anxiety around college preparedness.
This project is a great example of how important it is to know what your audience is thinking, rather than guess. As student attitudes constantly evolve, testing allows us to stay in line with what the people we serve are dealing with at this moment.
— Brett Circe, Starmark Chief Digital Officer
Real-Time Emotional Testing
We also performed real-time emotional feedback testing with a variety of previous Valencia College videos. These tests helped Starmark understand, second-by-second how engaged viewers were in previous video storylines. It also showed how and where emotional responses to the footage differed. In particular, we looked for differences between male and female viewers — and also for overall trends related to what best held viewers’ attention and created positive sentiment.
Being True to Yourself. Becoming Something Even Greater.
What emerged from weeks of research, brainstorming and testing is what we call the “Being–Becoming” campaign. Knowing we needed to address the core emotional barrier — anxiety about readiness — before we would have a chance to talk about everything else a student could gain at Valencia College, we created a concept framework that is inherently uplifting, while also allowing us to meet today’s students where they are emotionally. It centered the entire effort on the student as the hero and cast Valencia College’s faculty, staff and community in the role of supporting that student’s personal success.
Part of the nuance here is avoiding ungrounded, grandiose statements. What we found is that having a world of possibilities and options is actually pretty overwhelming to today’s students. That’s why we found a better way to get the feel-good in there with this campaign.
— Jacob Edenfield, Starmark Group Creative Director
The structure of the ads allows the campaign to talk about the prospect as well as the unique benefits to her of attending Valencia College. For example, “Be one of a few. Become one in a million.” has a payoff about small class sizes. “Be smart about tuition. Become a worry-free grad.” speaks to affordability. And “Be supported. Become inspired.” highlights tutoring and other support programs.
The versatility of Being-Becoming works for the school’s Accelerated Skills Training programs as well, which quickly prepare students for in-demand careers that don’t require formal degrees. The headline framework gives us a chance to speak to both the direct and indirect aspirations of the student — both what he wants out of his career and out of himself as a person.
New Messages, New Faces, and a New Typeface
The campaign has materialized into a multichannel marketing program including digital ads, billboards, bus ads, radio, video, in-game ads, and social media ads for Meta, Reddit, Snap and Twitch. After a direct competitive roundup, a broader industry advertising overview and a specific in-market review of major advertisers to validate the selection of the Being-Becoming campaign, the Starmark team also shared recommendations for amping up the uniqueness and flexibility of the overall design approach.
Introducing our custom typeface POUNCE
This campaign and its audiences demanded a headline approach that felt personal, hand-wrought, approachable and utterly unique in every encounter. The goal was to create consistency without the work ever becoming monotonous. And the only way to achieve that effect was to commission a custom type system.
Working with famed type designer and illustrator Alex Rhodes, the Starmark and Valencia College teams developed two distinct type weights, a huge number of letter glyph variations, Spanish and Portuguese glyphs and a custom-set instance of the word Puma (the Valencia College mascot). Alex started by developing a hand-drawn proof of concept for the uppercase bold weight. We used this as a collective scratch-pad to dial in the amount of variance in letterforms, the amount of texture in letter borders and the overall structure of the new type in relation to the Gotham font it would be used with.
We love Valencia College for how entirely one-of-a-kind they are. And it was such a pleasure to help create a type approach as unique as their students. How cool is that?
— Dale Baron, Starmark Executive Creative Director
Those hand-inked original letterforms were vectorized and turned into a working beta version in record time to allow the Starmark team to develop proofs of concept for print pieces and video storyboards to inform the fast-approaching shoot. While storyboards, comps and shoot prep were underway, Alex developed and refined the lowercase bold letterforms and a book weight with all the same inclusions as the bold.
In parallel, both Starmark and Valencia College artists collaborated on custom marginalia illustrations and brush styles for illustration. The campaign has a library of several dozen illustrations, including stars, lightning bolts, a crown, arrows and gears to enhance the storytelling and add notes of fun in each piece.
A Shoot That Married Technical Mastery With Authenticity
Our goal was to capture something real about the Valencia College student body — and we needed an experienced production partner to do that. We worked with Waymack and Crew, partners with a specialization in capturing interesting perspectives and authenticity. And those two qualities were especially important for this effort. Not only that, the signature visual effect for the campaign — moving from motion footage to a wash of Valencia College gold — created a unique technical challenge.
Every single face you see in an ad for Valencia College is a member of the student body, faculty or staff. Starmark and Valencia College worked together to create a broad internal casting call based on more than two dozen different scripts and storyboards, collecting and screening hundreds of prospects to assign roles. Together with Waymack and Crew, we created a schedule to capture 26 different storylines — both video and photo — cross seven different locations and five shoot days. The director developed a rapport with and teased out the beautiful performances you see from a group of almost entirely first-time actors.
To achieve the gold background animation effect we used a portable green screen to separate foreground and background in key scenes. Everything you see in the finals was lit and shot on the same set, using that folding chroma key as the separation. The result is performances and moves that feel authentic — because they actually happened as shot.
The first photo and video shoot covered storylines supporting Valencia College’s credit degree and many AST program areas. A future shoot will cover additional AST programs and CEL programs.
A Launch With Longevity
The campaign, launched in May 2024, is already showing strong returns in student enrollment across both AST and traditional degree-seeking credit programs. And while reporting is still preliminary, we are seeing higher engagement with video content. Future tests are scheduled to gauge memorability, intent and other important factors for success that will inform our future efforts.
But one other important thing the campaign is already delivering on is making sure the concept will still feel fresh and compelling at the end of a three-year run. That’s why the initial shoot included 20+ storylines with another dozen slated to shoot in early 2025.
But based on the first set of master videos and photos, Starmark and Waymack and Crew have already created several hundred variations for display, social, broadcast video, radio, print, out-of-home placements and transit advertising — all of which feel like a cohesive effort with individual merit and flare.
Amelia Island Wins Big at 2024 Flagler Awards
The 2024 Flagler Awards during the Florida Governor’s Conference on Tourism delivered a winning haul for the combined Amelia Island CVB and Starmark team.
This year, the team earned four prestigious Henry Awards in four categories: Resource/Promotional Material-Trade, Direct Marketing, Mobile Marketing and Radio Advertising. In addition to the four first-place Henry Awards, the Amelia Island CVB also collected Bronze Awards for Social Media Marketing and its Website.
All this year’s work builds upon the Island Thing campaign, an already award-winning effort that highlights the myriad ways to enjoy what makes Amelia Island so unique.
Our outstanding marketing team and partners have once again shown themselves to be among the best and brightest in Florida, consistently and creatively delivering effective, wow-worthy campaigns and programs.
— Gil Langley, President and CEO, Amelia Island CVB
About the Flagler Awards
The Flagler Awards is an annual statewide competition recognizing outstanding Florida tourism marketing. The program was created by VISIT FLORIDA to honor the countless individuals and organizations that help position Florida as the No. 1 travel destination in the world. Each year the Flagler Awards pay tribute to the determined efforts of those who use their skill, resourcefulness, creativity and innovative spirit to market Florida to the world.
Bringing the world of healthcare opportunities to life for South Florida kids
In the heart of South Florida, Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital (JDCH) stands as a beacon of pediatric excellence, providing top-tier medical services to give children a healthy, bright future. A sponsorship opportunity arose for JDCH to create two pivotal hands-on learning environments for fifth and eighth graders at the Junior Achievement World of South Florida.
Through its programming, Junior Achievement (JA) of South Florida, the largest JA in the country with 1.2 million students, empowers youth with the knowledge, ability and confidence to navigate their futures, drive our economy and lead our community. With both JDCH and JA aligned in their commitment to fostering brighter futures for our youngest citizens, Starmark embraced the opportunity with excitement.
Exploring healthcare with the heart, the mind, and a spirit of fun
Throughout the installation, we crafted interactive experiences. Two distinct spaces and a large common area offered us an extensive canvas. Once we designed, floor plans were used to build precise scale models in VR and test concepts in 3D.
VR/IRL
VR/IRL
VR/IRL
For BizTown, we transformed the space into a vibrant healthcare microcosm under an umbrella theme entitled “Wellness Begins With You.” The goal was to teach fifth-graders how a hospital works in an economy, and at the same time help them learn about the importance of overall well-being.
As children navigated the space, some became citizens of the town, while others adopted roles as healthcare professionals. The citizen kids met with the hospital ‘CEO’ kid, delved into hospital finance with the ‘CFO’, got wellness checks from a nurse, consulted a doctor, peeked into the world of medical imaging with a radiologist, and even had a fun-filled session with a physical therapist.
Kids received colorful bracelets with JDCH wellness affirmations at each visit. Then, building on the basics of staying active and eating right, we offered simple ways the kids could nurture their own mental and emotional well-being. These included some light exercises as part of their physical therapy visit and an animated video about self-care on a large display they could watch during their visit.
At Finance Park, we created fun and educational interactive experiences with a distinctive “Love What You Do” theme geared to eighth grade students. The objective was to spark ideas about careers in healthcare.
Life-sized portraits for the walls pictured healthcare workers in different roles, all showing a love for and commitment to their work. Each portrait included a scan tag that would take the eighth graders to a dedicated landing page.
There, they could search a detailed collection of career options we created just for the experience. This gave the kids multiple ways to dive into different hospital careers, while learning about the educational prerequisites and salaries.
Additionally, we spearheaded a photo shoot to capture the inspiring content that brought the walls of the room to life.
The Common Area was a great branding opportunity to reach business leaders who were participating as volunteers, showing how JDCH is the premier pediatric hospital. We dedicated one wall to JDCH’s “Power of Play” theme, showcasing the different ways the hospital brings it to life: art, music, yoga, pet therapy and more.
On the adjacent wall, we shot new photography that showcased the hospital’s recent expansion from four floors to eight. A door in the right wall opened into a cozy wellness room designed for young visitors feeling under the weather, and we brightened up this space as well. To help them keep their minds engaged, we also created a wall-sized game of word find within the room.
Engaging families to bridge learning with wellness
We used a number of strategies to connect the parents of the student visitors with the JA World experience. For parents of fifth grade visitors, we sent the kids home with a wellness checklist. The checklist included a scannable QR code that would take parents to a BizTown landing page with access to wellness content as well as themed bracelets and other items. Parents of eighth grade visitors received email communications from the teachers that included links to a newly created Finance Park landing page.
The aim was to create deeper engagement between families and their children so that, as the young minds begin their career exploration, JDCH would be top of mind. Both landing pages had a data capture that allowed parents to sign up for JDCH communications, which would allow JDCH to remarket to the families.
For Starmark, community plays an important role in the work that we do. Collaborating with JDCH and JA allowed us to blend our love for the brand with a shared vision of nurturing the future leaders of South Florida.
— Jacqui Hartnett, Starmark President
A thought-provoking wonderland that left lasting impressions
The impact was palpable. The delighted and enlightened kids at both Finance Park and BizTown, coupled with the common space branding, ensured Joe Dimaggio Children’s Hospital was not just another name in the crowd, but the centerpiece.
JDCH established its community focus among some of Broward’s most esteemed businesses.
Beyond the immediate event, the hospital’s message traveled to participants’ homes, further amplifying their message while winning the hearts of 20,000 families.
The interactive setups allowed JDCH to foster relationships with the future workforce — getting them to think about their health and well-being, develop both personal finance and employment skills, and learn about related academics.
At a time when children’s mental health crises are escalating, JDCH got the chance to impart the significance of a balanced approach to health.
In a community rich with healthcare choices, JDCH showed why they’re more than just an option. They are their community’s first choice for children’s healthcare.
A Grand Opening to Salute a Community Game Changer
When Memorial Healthcare System completed its extraordinary $125 million, 121,000 square foot state-of-the-art Memorial Cancer Institute, it was truly time to celebrate. The grand opening event needed to communicate to doctors, staff, patients, partners and the entire community that this game-changing Center was a breakthrough cancer resource for all of South Florida.
Start With An Inspiring Rallying Cry
Starmark transformed Memorial Cancer Institute’s “We Lead” core brand message into the event’s rallying cry: “Together We Lead”: a celebratory tribute to what everyone involved — donors, staff, patients, collaborating partners and the South Florida community — achieved as a unified team.
Add A Show-Stopping Centerpiece
A one-of-a-kind, three-story staircase installation served as the dramatic backdrop to the grand opening events, while creating an emotional connection with each attendee. The execution utilized architectural elements, surrounding natural light and 58 steps to create an unforgettable ethereal mountain vista that connected visitors to the cancer journey.
Like the mountain metaphor, confronting cancer takes determination, compassion and expertise. Aspirational messaging featured along the stair treads supported the hospital’s mission to lead with compassion, while leading for the lives they touch.
The pièce de résistance: a powerful moment where users could pose on the summit. Not only did this approach create a “wow” factor and photo ops for event attendees, it remains on display permanently and continues to serve as a warm, reassuring beacon to every new patient, family member and visitor who enters the Memorial Cancer Institute.
The event’s impact personally touched every guest who attended and will inspire thousands of patients going forward, as we welcome each with heart and commitment to their confident, peaceful journey.
— Katy Gewartowski, Starmark VP Client Service
Inspire Guests At Every Turn
Starmark kept the impactful theme going throughout the center, engaging guests with visual surprises and interactive opportunities in every space and corner. There were entrance banners, event signage and brochures welcoming and guiding their experience. Compelling points of interest that grabbed and held their attention. Memorable photo opportunities as keepsakes. And a stirring Sign-In Wall inviting guests to commemorate and share the journeys undertaken by their loved ones.
Why your company needs an AI usage policy
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the hot new topic, and we’ve written quite a bit about it – from our top tips for AI creativity to ideas for engaging customers to the best ways to harness an AI chatbot.
But as AI continues to offer new tools and capabilities, it’s important to explore responsibly. Even though Starmark has built our more than 40-year reputation on experimenting with what’s next, we always use our exploration to define good rules of the road for ourselves and our clients.
That’s why your company needs to define an AI usage policy. Clear guardrails and recommendations create an environment where your employees can test, experiment and learn without fear of getting it wrong or creating risks for the business.
And lest you think it’s OK to leave things to chance, here are several risk factors to consider if you let AI use run rampant:
Legal concerns
One of the reasons that AI is so controversial is its potential for copyright infringement. Many popular LLMs (large language models) and AI image generators were trained on a wide array of copyrighted works. Many authors, artists, and musicians have expressed public opposition to this, and there are several lawsuits from book publishers, newspapers and record labels who believe that AI-generated works are infringing on the rights of copyright owners.
Look at it this way, being able to tell Midjourney to imagine a work in the style of Jean-Michel Basquiat or requesting ChatGPT to deliver an article in the style of Stephen King simply wouldn’t be possible without the models that power these projects being trained on these creators’ works.
Even if the prompt you enter doesn’t explicitly tell the AI tool to copy the style of copyrighted works, it most likely still relies upon the use of infringing elements — considering major players in the AI space won’t definitively state that their models avoid copyrighted works.
This can open you up to legal liability, as using copyrighted material without permission in any commercial usage is not OK.
But that doesn’t mean use of generative AI (Gen AI) is confined to non-commercial passion projects. Adobe Firefly mitigates this risk with an image generation tool that has been trained on only public domain images and stock Adobe owns the rights to.
Bias
Depending on the data the AI tool has been trained with, it could potentially reinforce systemic bias. AI synthesizes existing content as opposed to truly thinking for itself. So in many cases, entering the word “doctor” into an image generation prompt would show primarily white males with a stethoscope, even if that doesn’t fit the need of your specific campaign or brand. More specific prompting can help alleviate this issue — but only if the humans who are part of the creative and approval processes think to manage this issue.
In addition to this demographic bias, language bias is also an issue. The most popular LLM models are primarily trained on either English or Chinese material. So while some tools do offer translation services, using one to translate your sales materials from English into another language can potentially introduce inaccuracies. And that’s not even accounting for dialectical differences between regions or countries. Suffice it to say, Generative AI is not a viable substitute for a professional translator in public-facing work.
As you craft your AI experimentation policies, be sure to include sections on mitigating biases — while outlining a clear framework where employees can try the tech for internal purposes versus commercial or customer-facing uses.
Privacy and protecting internal data
So, if there’s one piece of information here that should tell you how important it is to have an AI usage policy in place, let it be this tidbit. Because an effective AI usage policy will specify which tool(s) are allowed to be used by your employees — and with what types of information.
Most public LLMs, such as the freely accessible version of ChatGPT, will train themselves on any information a user submits.
Yes, that’s how it works. Seriously.
Translation: anything your employees put into that query or prompt bar becomes fodder for a language model you have no control over or oversight into. And if this data is not meant to be public, it can be a major problem.
The terms and conditions of different AI tools lay out rights and permissions based on use. And the solution to this glaring security hole is typically to use a paid version of the service (which promises not to use your input for training data). Heck, you can even create custom AI tools that are trained specifically on proprietary assets, which would generate results more suited to your needs than general models.
And, sure, using your company’s paid version or custom-trained model of ChatGPT avoids this unfortunate problem — but how can you expect an intern on his first day to know he needs to use our special version of ChatGPT versus the ChatGPT he already has bookmarked in his browser?
This is why written AI usage guidelines are so essential. They give you the ability to dispel these types of misunderstandings before your very private data becomes public data.
The hallucination problem
Once upon a time, mankind used the hallucinations of ascetics, sages and prophets to guide the course of our destiny. And hallucinations today are still valuable. They can show truth in a way that’s not possible within the realm of conventional reality. But what’s useful on an individual level doesn’t translate to the corporate world. Just like you wouldn’t want your brand-responsible art director working while on DMT, you don’t want an AI model generating hallucinations that are then sent out to your clients or customers.
Hallucinations are the byproduct of the way LLMs make inferences based on available information. Sometimes they’re funny. Sometimes they’re trippy. Sometimes they’re deeply upsetting. In all cases, they’re not the type of work product that’s ready for the rest of the world to see. If AI-generated work is sent directly to a stakeholder — or released publicly — without additional review and editing, it can have a disastrous effect on your brand reputation.
Just like the work product of a new team member, AI work product should be thoroughly vetted. The only difference is, unlike a human employee, an AI model might never be able to function without this level of oversight.
As you’re experimenting, make sure your oversight process is clearly outlined in your AI usage guidelines. Not only is it going to make sure public-facing images created with Midjourney don’t contain any gibberish text in the background, it’ll make sure your content is actually effective at persuading humans.
What an AI usage policy should include
If you’re not yet convinced you need an AI usage policy at your company, there’s simply no helping you. But for the rest of us, here are some vetted recommendations for a standard AI usage policy that you can use as a starting point.
Specify when and how data should be used in a LLM or other AI tool. With a subscription plan, it’s possible to create an API path for a tool like ChatGPT that protects your company’s data from being used to train the publicly available large language model. You can also create an entirely custom-trained in-house model using your own data set as the exclusive training data. These two methods protect your data security in a way that entering queries into public tools does not.Make sure to avoid using confidential information, such as company salaries, client research or anything subject to an NDA, in any tool that does not have a private data path.
Ensure sufficient human authorship examples to guide future work.That’s the standard for copyrightable work. In instances where you’re using AI-assisted work for commercial purposes, it’s best to err on the side of caution and ensure any final draft includes no AI assistance, even if an early outline or draft was created with the help of AI.
Direction on which tools can be used — and where. The output quality and data training methods of some tools (in particular tools you pay for and have vetted) are probably acceptable to use in commercial applications. On the other hand, some tools, like the free version of ChatGPT, use the data entered to train their models and shouldn’t be used with proprietary company data. Always make sure you specify tools for different uses and make it crystal clear which ones are for internal use only.
Be open to feedback and suggestions from employees who want to pilot a new tool for work, so it can later be added to the list of approved tools. As the market changes, it’s a great way to consistently test and vet new tools that can improve your workflow.
Create a review process to make sure that AI-generated content is accurate and fair. This can avoid distributing potentially harmful hallucinations or biased imagery that may not properly reflect your company’s values.
A commitment to disclosure when AI is used. Some governmental bodies, such as the EU, have already passed legislation that requires a disclaimer be shown whenever AI-generated content is used in an advertising setting. Wherever you are based, honesty is the best policy.
If you’d like to discuss starting or expanding your company’s use of AI, get in touch.
Building a Brand Bridge to Consumers with AI
It has been a minute since we published our eTip on 6 Ways To Boost Creative With AI, and we can assure you our experimentation with AI is on the rise as we find new ways to harness it as a conduit for creativity — and connection.
So, without further ado, here are several ways you can use AI to build stronger connections with customers:
Customer Service and Personalization
While AI chatbots and virtual assistants have been around for some time, we’ve seen an evolution with their ability to analyze customer feedback and understand human sentiment. Incorporating an AI chatbot on your site can give your customers an instant, always-on customer service channel – an effective way to drive them further down your purchase funnel or helping to retain existing customers with useful answers when and where they’re needed. Take a closer look at your customer journey map to find an opportunity where an actionable AI assistant can revolutionize your CX strategy – from recruiting students to enrolling patients to onboarding cruise passengers.
Case in point. Wavemaker UK and Voxly Digital launched an AI virtual guide for The Royal Navy to help candidates discover their most suitable role and to assist them throughout their application process. Royal Navy candidates were able to self-select one of six guides and then ask open-ended questions using real language. The language model was able to then provide custom recommendations in real-time. By tailoring the recruitment process to the individual, the UK government began attracting a more diverse audience while also increasing conversions.
Predictive Analytics
AI can be used to predict customer churn by identifying at-risk customers so that you can then woo them through retention strategies. The flip side of this coin is predicting demand. AI can also analyze historical data to project future customer behaviors.
According to ADWEEK, Hershey’s deployed custom algorithms to optimize ad placements for their Halloween campaign to ensure maximum engagement and ROI. Using AI, they were able to serve more ads to markets where candy sales were lackluster and fewer ads where Hershey’s was already selling like crazy. All in real time. Not only did they sell more candy, the approach gave them the upper hand in negotiating their retail media spend. How’s that for sweet success?
Content Creation
These days, it takes a lot more than display advertising to convert prospects and bring new people into the funnel. That’s where content comes into play. AI can be used as part of a powerful content strategy to build brand engagement beyond the typical digital ad campaign. Marketers can tap into a host of tools to deliver content at the speed of life, from video, blogs, social media updates, A/B testing and more.
Image Credit: Red Lobster®
Red Lobster dropped some “freshly-baked beats” to unite their biscuit lovers through music with their Cheddar Bay-I campaign. Superfans of Cheddar Bay Biscuits® posted enough social content, where an AI model could be trained to generate “cheesy” love songs across multiple music genres. The 30 mixes, all composed and performed using AI, played over images of biscuits. The full list of pop, jazz and rock tracks were featured on Red Lobster’s YouTube channel and served up as a countdown to National Biscuit Day. This kind of engagement would not have been possible by running traditional ads alone.
Customer Insights
Identifying consumer behavior patterns is a great use case for AI because analyzing data sets is one of its core strengths. Simply put, AI can help you define which customers you want more of – and those you do not. And once you have this knowledge, you can begin segmenting your audiences based on their behaviors versus less valuable data, such as demographics.
Enhanced Customer Experience
AI is fertile ground for dialing up the guest experience. From voice recognition to image recognition to virtual reality, with imagination and ingenuity, AI can be your catalyst for creating immersive brand interactions.
Image Credit: Goodby Silverstein & Partners
St. Pete-Clearwater’s Dalí Museum and its agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners created Ask Dalí using a large learning model (LLM) to recreate Salvador Dalí’s voice so that visitors can actually chat with the artist. Imagine asking about the most intimate details of his work and being answered in the voice of the great master himself. That’s a pretty powerful experience — especially when the AI experience is being delivered through a “lobster phone” replica from one of his surrealist works of art.
Social Media Monitoring
So many platforms, so little time. AI can be used to help marketers stay on the pulse of social trends. Let’s say you’re working on an enrollment campaign for a college and you’re looking for emerging trends to better resonate with young hopefuls. AI can provide a snapshot of your Gen Z audience, along with shifts you may want to consider for your marketing efforts (i.e. engage in their DM’s, run longer videos, utilize TikTok and Insta for search; and play up 90’s nostalgia.) AI can even identify key influencers to collaborate with to amplify your campaigns.
Your AI Adventure Awaits
At the end of the day, regardless of the industry or vertical, we are all looking for ways to entice consumers to spend their much sought-after time with our beloved brands. If your marketing strategy could use a little lift, consider an AI component at the roadmap stage. When used in novel ways, AI can be that springboard for creating brand experiences that build deeper loyalty.
If you’d like to learn more about AI or run an AI experiment to help achieve your goals, get in touch.
Nine surprising ways an AI chatbot for your site can save time and boost sales
Adding an AI chatbot to your website isn’t a one-size-fits-all decision. In fact, there are many purposes a bot can fulfill to enhance the visitor experience, streamline operations and add functionality. As you consider adding a bot to your site, here are some of our top recommendations to get you started.
Answering FAQs
No surprise, adding the ability to give instant replies to common questions is one of the most popular and most time-saving functions for an AI-enabled assistant on your site. It decentralized the FAQ function of your site, so there’s no need to click to a certain page and scroll to a certain function to find an answer. The user can simply ask the bot a question, no matter where she’s browsing on your site.
Pro tip: you can also use the questions people ask to continually train the learning model to update and expand its knowledge base with new frequently asked questions. These frequently asked questions can also become an engine for new content ideas.
Customer Service
Offering real-time assistance to site visitors can help resolve common problems, direct them to the appropriate resources, or even help more quickly connect to human support. This ability to rapidly resolve issues can save massive amounts of time from customer service staff who would normally need to help a customer or visitor.
Informational Guide
Do you have information about your tourism destination you want people to know? An AI chatbot can provide information about attractions, activities or upcoming events. The AI assistant can serve as an expert to help your visitors plan a trip, including recommendations on where to eat, shop and explore.
Hint: the same principle holds true for producers of products or services and for colleges. Imagine having the expertise of one of your product design experts, sales people or academic advisors on hand for every visitor. That’s what’s possible.
Sales Assistance
Keeping with the example of a tourism destination, An AI chatbot can also help visitors find and book accommodations based on their preferences, budget and any number of other criteria. This functionality also works great for product comparisons or finding the right service to meet a site visitor’s needs.
Event and Activity Reservations
It’s not just sales. Booking events, tours and activities can all be managed via a chatbot, too. If you’re a service provider, appointment bookings are also a great application.
Personalized Recommendations
An AI chatbot can create customized travel itineraries based on user interests, date of arrival, duration of stay and other information. This can include suggesting restaurants and cafes that match the user’s taste, budget or dietary restrictions. Same goes for appealing activities and events that may be going on during their visit.
Feedback Collection
Versus standard site session feedback collection, an AI bot can collect and parse more granular feedback on a wide variety of interactions. This can even extend beyond the site. Your AI chatbot can collect feedback about IRL experiences in your destination or with your service that you can use to improve your offerings.
Stay Current
Recent news, blog posts and the latest updates can all be communicated by an AI chatbot. This could also include timely information, such as a weather update or emergency situation, that is relevant to visitors.
Language Translation
Offering real-time translation services to cater to international visitors, making the website more accessible. Using an AI bot for this functionality, versus the Google Translate button, can be a more dynamic and intuitive way to meet the needs of your overseas site users.
If you’re considering adding an AI chatbot to your site, just be aware that results will only be as good as the material you use to train the AI model. Detailed and thorough training is critical to the success of your program.
With a properly trained model, you can create a successful bot to handle any of the features above (or all of them!) in a way that aligns with the specific objectives of your site and with your overall business direction. It’s a great application for an emerging technology to help save time and money while creating a better experience for your visitors.
Follow That Link! Why You Need SEO-Friendly Anchor Text
Anchor text — the visible, clickable text of a hyperlink — is probably something your average website visitor never thinks about as they’re reading a web page. If it’s relevant to their interest, they’ll feel compelled to click on it for some other destination on your site or the wider web. On the other hand, if someone just scrolls past that familiar blue type, or they click it and bounce, that means the anchor text isn’t doing its job effectively.
Good anchor text is important to your SEO strategy because it works on the page and also behind the scenes to tell the user and Google, respectively, something about the page you’re linking them to. When a reader sees the anchor text “Gen Z guide to TikTok” laced into a Starmark.com article about strategic thinking, she understands what she can expect to find if she clicks that link. Likewise, when Google crawls that same page, it’s using the companion hyperlink (<a href=“https://www.starmark.com”>Gen Z guide to TikTok</a>) to find other pages on the Starmark site.
Why it’s important to get it right
As we explained in the vintage eTip “Anchor Text: Link Building Done Right,” you don’t want anchor text to be too generic or too narrow. “Click here” and “Download here” don’t tell a reader who’s simply browsing your site anything useful at a glance. It also doesn’t convey any useful information to Google.
On the other hand, anchor text can also be too ultra-specific. Google isn’t a big fan of “exact match” and “phrase match” anchor text, in which the anchor text is the specific keyword or phrase you’re targeting, such as “Georgia schools near you” or “Florida vacation hotel deals.” (Plus, these keyword speed bumps disrupt the flow of the copy when a real human is reading it.) Basically, use keyword-rich anchor text sparingly, or Google will think you’re being spammy.
Good anchor text is descriptive, relevant and gets to the point. When users see the anchor text, they should have a very good idea where the link will take them, like in this example from the Art Lovers Itinerary on our client’s website, ameliaisland.com:
To Know Us Is to Love Us
Also on 3rd Street is the Amelia Island Museum Of History. To understand a little more about our island paradise, you’re going to want to take a docent-led tour inside the museum or walking tour around downtown. Truth is, we have a few dark secrets here that don’t always coincide with the gorgeous place you see today but pair those secrets with some amazing historical figures and you’ve got quite the storied island! Soak it all in then head over to the Welcome Center where you can pick up brochures and see all eight flags that we’ve flown under! If that just whets your whistle for more history, view all of our island museums and make a day of it.
It’s well-known that Google uses anchor text as one of its ranking signals, which are characteristics used to determine the position of a website in a search engine. That’s why anchor text best practices should definitely be part of your SEO strategy. Go through your website and see where you can optimize. It’s low-investment with high reward.
If you’d like to learn more about Starmark’s tips for optimizing your website, get in touch.
The Power of Customer Conversations: Why Every Team Member Should Speak with Your Customers
In today’s business world, customer experience (CX) is king. No longer is CX just a daily consideration for sales and support teams. Now, it’s a collective effort involving every member of any organization, from marketing and product development to finance and front-line workers.
For workers who regularly interact with your customer, CX thinking may come naturally. But for those who don’t, one incredibly powerful way to boost CX is through direct customer conversations. Here’s why everyone in your company should be talking to your customers.
You don’t have to rely on guesswork
Most businesses make guesses about what customers need or want. This often leads to focusing time and effort on the wrong areas. By listening carefully during customer conversations, your team can identify recurring issues that conventional data collection and analysis alone might miss. Regular chats with customers help challenge old assumptions, ensuring your decisions are based on real insights, not just guesses.
You can uncover the full picture
Data is crucial, but without personal interaction, it can be hard to get the full picture. Listening to how customers talk helps your team use their language in marketing and sales, making your brand personality and messages more relatable. Putting a real face and voice to your customers also helps your team foster a sense of ownership and pride in their work, no matter how they contribute to the overall experience. Not only that, internalizing those conversations means your team can start thinking from the customer’s perspective.
You can create customer-centric workplace
A customer-focused culture is key to long-term success. When all team members engage with customers, it creates a unified effort to prioritize customer satisfaction. This collaboration helps your business move together in one direction, rather than dividing resources and effort less effectively. These conversations also build essential communication skills, like active listening and empathy, that can help your team anticipate problems before they arise.
You can inspire fresh thinking through customer feedback
Customer feedback is a goldmine for innovation. By paying attention to what customers want, your team can come up with creative solutions that truly make a difference. This listening exercise can even inform your highest performing content. Listening well is crucial for any successful business, yet many large companies don’t do it effectively. Focusing on a customer-centric approach encourages critical thinking and proactive problem-solving, keeping your business ahead of the curve.
Exceptional experience is the key to revenue growth
The ultimate goal of talking to customers is to boost your business’s bottom line. By delivering top-notch experiences based on direct feedback, you can attract new customers, keep existing ones happy and increase their lifetime value. This approach not only improves customer satisfaction and loyalty but also drives revenue growth, positioning your business for long-term success.
Start the process
Ready to get started? Begin by mapping out your customer’s journey through these phases: assess (research before purchase), admit (acknowledge the need for your product), affirm (reinforce the purchase decision), activate (receive the product), acclimate (integrate with the product), accomplish (fulfill the product’s promise), adopt (embrace your company), and advocate (become a raving fan). Following these steps will help you create top-notch experiences, boost profits, and build lifelong customer relationships.
Starmark Deepens Its Metaverse Leadership with ENGAGE XR Certification
Starmark is proud to announce its recent accomplishment as an ENGAGE XR Certified Developer. This prestigious certification showcases Starmark’s expertise creating metaverse environments, experiences and advancements that defy expectations.
Users are active participants instead of passive viewers, like in a typical Zoom. Our ENGAGE XR certification is more than an accolade; it’s a commitment to being at the forefront of business in the future.
— Brett Circe, Chief Digital Officer at Starmark
Starmark selected ENGAGE XR as its metaverse development platform of choice for its exceptional flexibility and versatility. In the words of Starmark Chief Digital Officer, Brett Circe, “Where ENGAGE stands out from other metaverse platforms is how many tools and abilities it gives us to create different experiences for a range of clients that runs from Florida attractions to tech companies to colleges.
Broward College
Broward College
Broward College
Long before the term ‘metaverse’ became an entry in most people’s tech lexicons, Starmark was pioneering the use of augmented and virtual reality to create experiences that couldn’t exist otherwise — transcending both time and space. This included an early foray into augmented reality for SeaWorld Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin in 2012 and our more recent partnership with Boggy Creek Airboat Adventures. For Boggy Creek, Starmark harnessed VR technology for B2B sales — transporting prospective travel planners and tourists directly into the heart of Florida’s natural beauty.
Boggy Creek Airboat Adventures
Boggy Creek Airboat Adventures
Boggy Creek Airboat Adventures
Boggy Creek Airboat Adventures
The immersive VR experience now provides the sales staff the unique capability to conduct real-time, interactive sales demos with travel planner partners anywhere in the world. Not only is it a more compelling firsthand look at what guests can expect, it’s also a more economical and scalable alternative to conventional familiarity trips, also known as fam trips.
Starmark is expanding deep into mixed reality development for a variety of clients in B2B, Education, Healthcare, and Travel & Tourism to explore augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and artificial intelligence (AI). These partnerships aim to harness XR technology to drive the bottom line for businesses both in revenue growth but also in reducing sales cycles and travel costs.
South Florida PBS
South Florida PBS
South Florida PBS
“Mixed reality will redefine virtual sales meetings, hands-on education, and even mental wellness,” said Brett Circe, Starmark’s Chief Digital Officer. “Users are active participants instead of passive viewers, like in a typical Zoom. Our ENGAGE XR certification is more than an accolade; it’s a commitment to being at the forefront of business in the future.”
As we venture further into the metaverse, Starmark is excited to continue shaping the future of digital interaction, armed with creativity, technology, and this additional ENGAGE XR certification.
