A spooktacular Halloween celebration at Starmark
Halloween Fun at Starmark!
Check out these fiendishly funny, ghoulishly gorgeous and wickedly whimsical costumes!
Happy Halloween!
Latest Posts
Staying Agile through Irma: What We Learned During a Stormy Sprint
Thursday, June 1, 2017 – Like every year, Starmark leadership meets on the first day of Hurricane Season to review and update our business continuity plan (BCP) created in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Thursday, September 7, 2017 – In preparation for Hurricane Irma, our business continuity plan goes into effect to protect employees, property and workflow during the storm.
Friday, September 22, 2017 – After a full two-week sprint out of the office, the entire Starmark team holds a Sprint Retro focused on continuous improvement of our BCP.
Here’s what we learned after a sprint under storm conditions:
There’s no replacement for having a plan
Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst. That’s what having a business continuity plan is all about.
After 12 years without an incident, it would have been easy for Starmark to get lackadaisical about updating our BCP every year. But having the plan up-to-date made all the difference.
Over the years the plan has evolved as technology evolves. We are now able to take advantage of the newest cloud storage options, communication methods, and our experiences from two years of agency-wide Agile Methodology.
Productivity stayed up even when servers went down
Even though the office runs on a generator, damage to power and fiber lines around the Starmark office complicated remote access to our file servers. But with a bit of pre-planning, most active project files were replicated to one of our cloud servers. Teams were able to keep stories on track, even with more than half our staff evacuated to remote locations.
And once back in the offices, having a separate cloud platform made integrating new work back to our our server as simple as dragging and dropping.
Close teams make distance irrelevant
Teams worked together around a small cafe table in the lobby of a condominium high-rise. One roadmapped a new project in the elevator bay of a hotel. Another executed an entire multimedia campaign using Hangouts from three different states. We learned that when teams are comfortable collaborating on a daily basis, very few things can stand in the way of accomplishing solid work.
We are more resilient than we realized
As an Agile team, we’re set up to respond well to change versus doggedly following a plan. During Irma, however, we dealt with enough change to push Agile to its limits. Some client efforts were paused while they also recovered. Several new efforts were born out of storm recovery efforts. Priorities shifted on a daily basis as power and data access came back across the state.
Even when we’re out of office, we’re still tongue in cheek
We created Irma Awards to lend a little levity to a tough situation.
With our IT and accounting teams working tirelessly, Starmarkers battling traffic to get back home and others without power to their homes for more than a week, we shrugged off frustration to celebrate with a happy hour awards ceremony.
Prepare to make your website ADA compliant
ADA (American Disabilities Act) compliance has been a requirement for government & public entity websites for nearly 20 years. However, as the general public’s online lives are merging with daily physical needs for acquiring products and services, lawsuits citing ADA accessibility on consumer websites have recently cropped up in several states, including Florida. (more…)
How to welcome world travelers, to Greater Fort Lauderdale, in a politically negative landscape
In this time of travel bans and safety concerns, The Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau, Starmark and DiamondView launched an unprecedented initiative to serve as a warm welcome for all visitors – an expression of our open-door/open heart philosophy. The campaign launch, featuring this centerpiece video, launched on the United Nations’ World Tourism Day. Additional activations and extensions will continue into 2018, providing further reminders that in Greater Fort Lauderdale, everyone is welcome – every day. (more…)
Starmark team receives first patent for its breakthrough FanWise social reward technology
FanWise, a unique social-mobile technology system developed by Starmark International’s in-house Innovation Lab team, achieved a significant milestone, receiving September 26, 2017, Notice of Allowance on the first of multiple patent applications filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. (more…)
Our New Post-Cookie Reality
Apple’s latest release of iOS 11, featured on the iPhone X, includes a (pretty cool) Safari browser feature called Intelligent Tracking Prevention. ITP takes Apple’s user privacy commitment to new heights, using AI-derived techniques to set stricter time limits on first- and third-party web cookies. (more…)
Five things to know about machine learning
Reprinted from the South Florida Business Journal.
The definition of machine learning comes under the umbrella of artificial intelligence, but is less about human-like decision-making and more about writing code, called algorithms, that will automatically change outcomes as new data becomes available. In other words: These algorithms evolve and improve as data changes, without developers having to write new code. (more…)
A 4-Day Immersion Reaps ROI for
Azul Beach Resort Riviera Cancun
THE OBJECTIVE
Azul Beach Resort Riviera Cancun wanted to increase awareness among moms for the resort’s family-friendly amenities and activities.
OUR SOLUTION
We’ve developed a network of today’s top social influencers, content creators, bloggers, and non-traditional media to curate impactful marketing content. This partnership program includes a strongly routed relationship with Macaroni Kid, a nationwide network of family-oriented websites and newsletters.
To achieve the goal of our client Azul Beach Resorts Riviera Cancun, we arranged for the resort to host the Macaroni Kid Silver Daisy Boondoggle, an annual immersive trip for 50 of the network’s top publishers.
This group of publishers posted videos, photos and articles raving about their 4 days and 3 nights in luxury and splendor. With the hashtag #MKGoesAzul, their fans followed the event in real time, including resort beauty shots, daytime and nighttime resort entertainment, and the picture-perfect food and drink and even a behind the scenes sneak peek at the new Nickelodeon Resort Riviera Maya (coming soon).
THE OUTCOME
The Macaroni Kid influencers were prolific in their content. The strategy we concepted, negotiated and executed included four national articles about the experience, plus local media coverage by all of the attending publishers. They created 1,821 social media posts across all platforms, and we ran two months of digital advertising in multiple locations.
A great Alexa skill needs a developer and a writer
Creating a useful Alexa skill is like writing a play in Javascript. That’s why you need a writer and a developer collaborating closely to create something your customers will love. (more…)
Have you played ‘Stump Alexa’? Maybe you should
Reprinted from South Florida Business Journal.
When it comes to new technologies, there’s always a learning curve. And learning often starts with games and conversations among new users and wannabes. That and much, much more seems to be happening now with Alexa, the voice-controlled personal assistant service that works with Amazon Echo and a growing number of other devices. (more…)
Designing a resort’s website that encourages consumers to stay a while
Azul Beach Resorts is a family of four high-end Caribbean destinations under the Karisma Hotels & Resorts umbrella. However, Azul Beach Resorts lacked a web identity of its own and instead lived within the Karisma website, among the nine other Karisma luxury hotel families.
After completing a rebranding exercise, Starmark recommended a stand-alone website to differentiate the brand and elevate it above the other all-inclusives. The site also needed to further differentiate the Azul resorts from one another in order to better appeal to our target personas. Through compelling visuals and all new copy we highlighted the unique selling propositions of Azul Beach Resorts Riviera Maya, The Fives Playa del Carmen, Sensatori Mexico and Sensatori Jamaica.
Creatively, the new Azul site also needed to align with the new ad campaign, which visually and verbally captures the perfect moments of a stay at Azul Beach Resorts.The mobile-first design incorporated short, informative copy along with large, swipe-ready images.
To fine tune the users experience, Starmark implemented user testing throughout the process. At each stage of the design and development the site received repeated love for the lifestyle and getaway feeling — across mobile, table and desktop. Subjects also praised its “focus on family fun” that everyone can enjoy together and separately.
Other program elements included search engine optimization (SEO), fine-tuning contextual links, a social Instagram feed, a prominent enewsletter form, image galleries and more. Now, www.azulbeachresorts.com tells the Azul story in a modern and engaging way, encouraging busy consumers to browse and plan all in one place.
Greater Fort Lauderdale and Starmark do it again at this year’s VISIT FLORIDA Governor’s Conference on Tourism
Along with our client Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau (GFLCVB) and first-class DMOs, the Starmark team is honored to have been recognized with top honors at the 2017 VISIT FLORIDA Governor’s Conference on Tourism, which was held on August 28th. Actually, this year marks the fourth time in the last six years that Starmark and GFLCVB won the highest honor, Best of Show Flagler Award; this year for the debut of the Hello Sunny TV network, an innovative extension of the Hello Sunny integrated marketing campaign reaching new markets and sustaining the Greater Fort Lauderdale destination brand.
“The Greater Fort Lauderdale CVB is incredibly proud of all its accomplishments this past year and it is a true honor to be recognized by our peers for the many exciting marketing and public relations initiatives that we worked hard to implement,” said Stacy Ritter, president and CEO of the Greater Fort Lauderdale Conventions & Visitors Bureau. “From debuting the Hello Sunny TV network to launching the world’s first marketing campaign featuring transgender models, the milestones the GFLCVB has achieved would not have been possible without the amazing teams I get to work with every single day!”
Last December saw the debut of Hello Sunny TV network with multiple channels featuring 24/7 programming. A “Live” channel for beach cams, local events and hot spots, plus on-demand choices to promote everything you can do in Greater Fort Lauderdale. We also created channels in other languages and markets including meeting and convention planners. Tools were developed to allow Greater Fort Lauderdale to interrupt programing with LIVE broadcasts from special events that streams simultaneously across all devices plus streams on Facebook LIVE and Apple TV.
“Hello Sunny TV is a perfect example of how the Starmark Lab benefits our clients by going way beyond marketing to create a product that addresses a fundamental need in the marketplace. With more people cutting the cord and relying on streaming services, now we have an owned media channel for Greater Fort Lauderdale and partners that addresses this trend in a consumer-friendly way,” explained Matthew Wood, Director, Innovation Lab.
Additional wins include a Silver in “Creativity in Public Relations” as a result of a partnership with GFLCVB and FINN Partners on the “Greater Fort Lauderdale Goes Luxe” event – an upscale mall takeover orchestrated by FINN Partners, GFLCVB’s PR firm, in New York City promoting Greater Fort Lauderdale as THE haute couture LUXE destination replete with fashion show, beach cabanas and Hello Sunny signage —all against the backdrop of larger-than-life photography that transported mall visitors to the beaches of Greater Fort Lauderdale.
GFLCVB also took home a Bronze in “Mixed Media Campaign” for the Riptide Music Festival that not only launched the Hello Sunny TV network, but featured beachy-themed Snapchat geofilters, selfie banners and logo design – an integrated campaign that resounded with the sounds of Fort Lauderdale.
“We are extremely proud that our creative has been recognized with top honors as the best destination marketing in the state of Florida in four of the last six years,” said Starmark President Jacqui Hartnett. “Our collaboration with Greater Fort Lauderdale is an incredible synergy of marketing talent and resourceful individuals who are committed to making Greater Fort Lauderdale a top U.S. destination.”