deeplocal: Design and Development for Humans and Machines

We often talk a lot about design and technology but not enough about the value of marketing. In the past few days, Deeplocal and/or it’s associated work has appeared in Wired, Fast Company, and Communication Arts, and received a best of interactive award from Communication Arts, two Pittsburgh AIGA awards and an award from MassTransit Magazine.

I just returned from a transit conference where we were presenting our RouteShout project (featured in Wired and MassTransit) where I was astounded how many in the industry knew exactly who we are and what our product did. This comes from two things: 1. having a great product, and 2. making sure people know your product exists. Most companies, including our own at times, fail horribly at making sure people know their product exists. We have no big marketing department or budget, we are just diligent and responsive. We pay attention to what is being said about us, thank people that help us or go out of their way for us, respond to questions and phone calls, and keep people informed when something cool or exciting is happening here at Deeplocal. This has worked very well for us. We remain a small but driven team, we are growing slowly and expanding our national client base. We are doing this because of yes, technology, but also, because of marketing.There is no real formula for this that I can share. It is literally just following leads, staying in touch, and treating your product or company’s network as you would your personal network. Stay in your room and watch TV and people start to forget about you. Be visible, active, and help the world in some way and you will make friends.

So consider this a thank you to our team that works hard to let people know all of the cool stuff we are doing here.

Thankfully our team keeps delivering cool and fun stuff to talk about but I promise you that alone is never enough. Being from a smaller city (Pittsburgh) that is outside of the major U.S. media centers like NYC and LA make it a challenge for us to get noticed. Thanks also to the journalists and writers that work to support companies like ours in Pittsburgh. So yes, there is nothing that important or enlightened in this post but I just was feeling all warm and fuzzy lately. I am proud of our team that has managed to stand out among some very large competition and continue to let people know that we have something special here and we built it from the ground up here in the great city of Pittsburgh. Now come eat waffles with us.

Don’t actually use methamphetamine – think metaphor (I think this is a metaphor…) people.

I will be in LA all day Wednesday and Thursday. We don’t get out to the west coast all too often. I would first like to invite you to what will likely be a great event in LA. Presented by Trailer Park and Contagious Magazine, Next Generation Content will tackle the challenges of figuring what comes next for brands and advertising. Deeplocal will be presenting our approach to working that we like to call Gutter Tech. If you would like to meet, please call our office and they will put you in touch with me. I expect warmth and sun.

If you can’t make it to the event, no problem (I think it is actually sold out!). I’ll still be wandering around and if you want to talk about potential projects, just reach out to our home base in Pittsburgh. We won’t bite.

When the Deeplocal team journeyed to France last summer for the Nike Chalkbot project, we were excited to be involved with the Tour de France, but we had no idea how much the Chalkbot’s messages would affect each of us. We also couldn’t have anticipated what the words that Chalkbot printed would mean to the individuals who were currently battling or who had battled cancer.

Each early morning (think 4 or 5am), our team would get the Chalkbot prepared to print, and as it was printing, many of us would walk behind it and read message after message. Long after we’ve returned home from the Tour, we’re still seeing the Chalkbot’s affect on individuals and their families. One story that we want to share with you is about a four-year-old girl who is battling the rarest form of a pediatric brain tumor; her name is Carly Mitchell.

We found out about Carly when a family friend submitted a message for the Chalkbot that was printed on the course of the Tour. Carly has been undergoing chemotherapy and keeping an eye out for clinical trials that she’s eligible for. Her family has been fundraising to pay for Carly’s medical bills; one of their recent fundraising efforts is selling short and long-sleeve shirts with Carly’s chalkbot message on them, “Keep Fighting Carly.”

We wanted to pass along the information about how you can purchase a shirt or make a donation:
To place an order, email keepfightingcarly@yahoo.com
Checks and money orders can be made payable to Keep Fighting Carly, P.O. Box 182, Plainfield, PA 17081