2007: Year in Review

As another year passes, I'm pleased at the diversity of solutions that our team developed this year. These few selections highlight the range of solutions we offer:

Elsevier – Distributed Authorship Custom Web Application System
One of the world's largest published launched a beta version of our software to streamline book production. Our focus on Web 2.0 interface design allowed for quick internal adoption and generated demand for a quicker rollout.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals – Strategic Marketing Campaign
OHO helped Vertex reach candidates in new geographic regions. Through an online campaign, Vertex was able to extend their reach and increase their ability to source candidates directly.

Children's Health Fund – Google Advertising Campaign
When CHF was named one of the four US charities to be featured by American Idol, OHO helped them capitalize on this opportunity developing a campaign in 24 hours. Using search engine advertising, we drove 27% more traffic to the site resulting in an additional 3,200 visitors, $60K in donations and over 500 new people added to their e-mail list.

Thanks to all of our clients for a great year – we look forward to a year of innovation in 2008.

Web Videos Receive Honors from Ava Awards

The Ava Awards – an international multi-media and video awards competition – have honored two web video campaigns developed for the Vineyard Christian Fellowship Greater Boston and The River Church in New York City.

The web videos were the destination of the out-of-home and direct mail marketing campaigns also developed by OHO. The stylized videos used actual people sharing testimonials of their experiences and offered a way to make a personal connection with target audiences.

The videos have received thousands of unique views and have proven an effective tool for extending web site visits and driving people deeper into the site.

Print Projects for Museum of Science, Brigham and Women's, and Vantage Partners Recognized

Three print communication pieces have been recognized by the 2007 MarCom Creative Awards.

• The Museum of Science, Boston Annual Report 2006 received top honors with a Platinum Award in the Annual Report/Educational Institution category.
• Vantage Partners – a Boston-based consulting firm – received a Gold Award in the Direct Mail/Brochure category for a mailer that OHO designed, wrote and produced.
• Brigham and Women's OB/GYN Annual Report 2005/06 was selected for an Honorable Mention in the Annual Report/Medical Category.

In addition to these three print pieces, the Institute of Contemporary Art (www.icaboston.org) web site was recognized with a Gold Award in the Overall Web Site category.

The MarCom Creative Awards is an international creative competition that recognizes outstanding achievement by marketing and communication professionals. The 2007 competition received over 5,000 entries.

Travel and Tourism Site Receives MITX Finalist Nod

MITX announced the finalists for the 2007 awards show this week and OHO designed site for the Loudoun Convention and Visitors Association (www.visitloudoun.org) was designated as a finalist in the Travel and Tourism web site category.

The Web 2.0 site uses the ContentBridge content management solution, an on-the-fly trip builder, and mash-up with Google maps.

The winners will be announced on November 7th at the MITX awards show.

Acceleron Pharma Joins the OHO Ranks Looking to Extend Recruitment Advertising

Acceleron Pharma has signed with OHO this week becoming our sixth life sciences client along with Synta Pharmaceuticals and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. OHO will be completing a new career fair booth for Acceleron and planning a print advertising strategy.

Summit Creative Awards Recognize Two Clients

OHO received three awards from the 13th Annual Summit Awards. Two awards for the Healthy Futures website OnMyLevel (www.onmylevel.org) and one award for Tarara Winery in Northern Virginia (www.tarara.com).

The highly decorated OnMyLevel site was given a gold award in the Youth Audience Website category and a silver award in the Consumer Service Website category. The web site for Tarara winery was honored with a bronze award in the Retail Website category. The Tarara site is loaded with back-end and interactive features developed by OHO: an online store, ContentBridge content management, and an e-newsletter package based on MediaBridge.

The winners were selected from over 5,000 entries and judged on: strength of concept, quality of execution, and an ability to communicate and persuade. The final selections were made by an international judging panel.

Best in Category Award from Horizon Interactive Awards

OHO snagged top-honors in the 6th annual Horizon Interactive Awards with a Best in Category recognition for the On My Level web site (www.onmylevel.org). The site was recognized in the Education and Training category. The Best in Category Award was selected from the sites recognized in the Gold category.

OHO also picked up two bronze awards for www.oho.com in the Business-to-Business category and for Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital (www.brooksrehab.org) in the Consumer category.

Entries were judged by an international panel of industry professionals in the interactive media industry and by a panel of end-users. Judges looked for the best blend of creativity and functionality. The entries were judged on:

• Solution creativity and originality
• Overall user experience
• Communication of message
• Technical merit
• Effectiveness of solution

Government Web Site Launched for City of Jersey City

After four months of development, the City of Jersey City launched their new web site www.cityofjerseycity.com. The mayor launched the site today and promoted many of the new interactive features. OHO developed the site using a Microsoft .NET platform and content management solution for easy integration with the city's existing IT infrastructure. We also took the city through an information architecture and design process. Read what the press is already saying about the site.

OHO has also developed web sites for other regional and governmental agencies such as Homes for Good and the Loudoun Convention and Visitor Association in Virginia.

Adnexus Therapeutics Opens Doors for Employee Referrals (and an IPO)

The Adnexus Therapeutics staffing team has engaged OHO to develop the concept and creative for its upcoming recruitment open house to be held in mid-September. This is the third peer-to-peer recruitment effort OHO has been engaged with for life sciences companies. OHO worked with Adnexus earlier this year to develop career fair materials for the BIO conference.

In a slightly larger deal, Adnexus also announced that they will be headed into an IPO round of funding.

Philip Johnson Glass House Selects OHO as Web Agency

OHO has just become the web agency for the Philip Johnson Glass House (www.philipjohnsonglasshouse.org) – part of the National Trust. I couldn't be more thrilled.

The Glass House is in my home town of New Canaan, CT. I remember peeking over the stone wall to get a glimpse of the house when it was still Johnson's private residence. (We were yelled at by the caretaker to "Get out of here.") And, I've always had a passion for modern architecture and design – in the 8th grade I wrote a "paper" on Johnson's famous post-modern AT&T building in New York City.

In 1993, my parents gave me a copy of the then recently published book on the Glass House complied by David Whitney. They purchased it at the New Canaan Book Store signing attended by the architect and the author. The inscriptions reads: "With best wishes in the graphic design! – Philip Johnson and David Whitney." It's strange to be entrusted with representing a portion of his most private legacy on the internet.

OHO will take over the work begun by Pentagram to enhance the interactive elements of the site and provide a more robust content management solution. The Glass House has also selected our web-based press room, MediaBridge, to handle the massive press inquiries.

"Visible Results" Campaign: Snitching an Idea from Our Own Playbook

Earlier this year we pioneered advertising on the EZ Ride Shuttle in Cambridge. This private shuttle service transports North Station commuters to the heart of the life sciences community in Cambridge.

For the cost of one half-page Sunday Boston Globe ad, we were able to secure advertising on an entire fleet of shuttle buses for one month. The campaign helped raised the profile of Synta, a Lexington-based biotech company. The ads made an impression: "You are everywhere!" other folks told our client.

We seized the opportunity to advertise to the Cambridge life science community this summer with a set of our own ads promoting one of our three lines of business: life science recruitment advertising.

Vertex Raises Profile for Recruiting with Online Campaign

We just wrapped up a massive online campaign for Vertex Pharmaceuticals (www.vrtx.com) to help them recruit talent from New Jersey and Philadelphia. The results were fantastic: over 28,000 visitors to the careers section in 3 months with an average increase of over 100% in traffic from the target geographic regions. The client reported an increase in resume flow over the three months as well.

Once again, the campaign demonstrated the power of Google to us. Google allows us to target ads (text, banners, rich-media) on specific non-Google web sites such as LinkedIn, The New York Times, or many life science specific sites. For one biotech hub site, we explored purchasing banner ads directly – the cost for three months: nearly $24,000. We were able to run the same number of ad impressions using Google ad placement for just $1,500 and generate nearly 1,000 clicks or about $1.50 a visitor.

Google and Yahoo search engine advertising campaigns also delivered some of the top results. See the creative and read the full report.

Red Sox Nation 2007 Launches with New Logo

OHO's new logo for Red Sox Nation launched today in coordination with the Christmas at Fenway event on online ticket sales for 2007. See the new logo on the Red Sox site. The Red Sox Nation program is the largest marketing effort run by the Red Sox.

ICA Pre-Opening Party

The Institute of Contemporary Art www.icaboston.org, Boston's first new museum in 100 years, officially opens this weekend. Tonight was one of many preview parties. The Super Vision exhibit has some fantastic works that are inviting and fun. In the exhibit for the Foster Prize, I enjoyed the "Wrong Number Karaoke" a video installation with the artist lip syncing to believable, yet slightly bizarre, voicemail messages.

The Mediatheque: Check out videos, exhibit info, and the new web site powered by OHO.

The Founders' Gallery: At the front the cantilever overlooking the Harbor.


Video Signage: The dynamic animated entry sign powered by an XML link from the web site.

OHO Wins 50 Awards in 2 years

The MarCom Creative Awards have selected OHO work for recognition in 9 categories for web site design, web content writing, and print marketing materials.

• An interactive video web site for a local non-profit teaching kids to make good life decisions www.onmylevel.org
• A marketing web site for Brooks Rehabilitation Hospital in Jacksonville, FL www.brooksrehab.com
• A marketing web site for The Children's Hospital at Montefiore www.montekids.org
• Children's Hospital Boston – printed fundraising brochure for the Art for Kool Kids Program
• A travel and tourism site for Loudoun CountyVirginiaa www.visitloudoun.org
  

With these awards OHO has now received 50 honors in 2005 and 2006 including a Best in Show Award from NEDMA.

ICA Slide Show Preview

The Boston Globe's architecture critic praised the new ICA on Boston's waterfront in today's column. It provides interesting background on the architects who have built few US structures and come from a pure art background. The slide show and audio commentary provide a great sneak peak to the building. I especially look forward to seeing the Mediatheque that slants down so the windows are filled with a view of only water. I am also looking forward to seeing the final installation of digital signage that is managed via an XML feed from our web database.

Institute of Contemporary Art Boston Launches New Web Site

In preparation for the opening their new facility on Boston's waterfront, the Institute of Contemporary Art Boston launched their new web site powered by ContentBridge, OHO's content management system. The site features an artistic application of stylesheets that allows the user to manipulate the color scheme of the site. The new facility will open December 10th with a free 12-hour open house.

Red Sox Nation Identity Project

The Boston Red Sox have selected OHO to develop a new logo for their number one marketing program, the Red Sox Nation. The program was begun two seasons ago and has recruited over 100,000 "offical citizens" since its inception. The Red Sox turned to OHO to help brand the Red Sox Nation program and establish it as a product. The new logo will roll out in December with the launch of the 2007 Red Sox Nation program.