Do your brainstorming sessions seem to lack inspiration?

Successfully brainstorming for disruptive and creative ideas requires experience and special skills. Most human beings tend to stick with established patterns of thinking, so thinking out-of-the-box is much easier said than done. But it does not take visionaries to conjure buzz-generating, eye-popping or mind-blowing marketing campaigns that rake in new customers…. (more…)

Search for any random topic on Google these days, and you’ll most likely find at least two videos on the first page.

Optimising videos for the web is essentially the same as SEO. Flash videos can now embed metadata, meaning that interviews with your CEO can contain all of the key search terms within his/her interview.

But how does a marketing director ensure the videos he/she creates will generate the right leads? (more…)

Online social media is here to stay.

Facebook is the most popular global social networking site, as confirmed by Nielsen research.  In May 2009, it had 144.3 million unique visitors. Twitter is also becoming very popular, having jumped from 1.2 million unique visitors in May last year to 18.2 million this May. And Linkedin is exceptionally popular with job seekers and recruiters.

Have professional service firms joined the online social circuit? Which tools are they using? Are Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin their top choices? Do they use these channels and tools mainly for recruitment purposes or do they also target clients?

To answer these questions, Manifesto reviewed 47 websites including those of Accenture, BCG, Capgemini, Deloitte, Grant Thorton, IBM Global Consulting, Mckinsey, Nielsen, TNS, Synovate.

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The professional services industry is increasingly relying on published thought leadership as a platform to recruit new clients.  Examples include webinars, articles, white papers and surveys.

We have observed that while many are happy to upload new content to their websites, few spend enough time exploring how to use web 2.0 to enhance their distribution and awareness.  To start, SLATES is a good checklist.

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Online corporate videos have been around for a while, but the production of thought leadership videos by Professional Service Firms (PSFs) that feature their clients and other business associates is a trend to watch.

Take a look at Govtube, an online (streaming) video by Bearing Point featuring US government officials and their thoughts on today’s political, economic and business issues.

It would be hard to differentiate Bearing Point’s videos from vignettes from CNN or CNBC.

We were suitably impressed. (more…)