So where exactly are you spending your Advertising dollars? We asked readers to share their thoughts and surprisingly, 71 percent of budgets are being spent on Web Advertising, while 29 percent is going to print media. Have you tapped into cost effective Audio Marketing solutions? Now is the time to rethink dollars and “sense”. To learn more, contact us at cr@holdcom.com.
Hey Holdcom Voice Readers! Each month I’ll be offering a writing tip that may help you on any future script submissions. This month I’d like to clarify
Eastern Standard Time Vs. Eastern Daylight Time.
A common misconception is that the phrase “Eastern Standard Time” (EST) is valid all year round and that it is synonymous with the phrase “Eastern Time”. However, EST is in effect for only half the year; “Eastern Daylight Time” (EDT) being the other half.
Specifically, it is Eastern Standard Time when observing standard time (Winter), and Eastern Daylight Time when observing daylight saving time (Summer).
It is appropriate to refer to the Time Zone as “Eastern Time” at any time of year, as it encompasses both EST and EDT.
This all holds true for the other US Time Zones – Pacific Time, Mountain Time, and Central Time.
REMEMBER: If you ever have grammar or usage-related questions when updating your Message-On-Hold script, feel free to email them to scripts@holdcom.com.
One might think that credit card companies would jump at the opportunity to ferret out potential scam artists and fraud perpetrators. After all, they are constantly reminding customers of the enormous financial drain created by credit card abuse and theft, fueling an entire industry devoted to card security and identity protection. Well, I recently encountered a frustrating situation in which the sheer complexity and magnitude of a Fortune 500’s administrative maze swallowed my attempts to thwart a potential credit card scam....
If you’re on Facebook, simply type in “Holdcom” as a search and join our Group. It’s a great forum to discuss Audio Marketing and Voice Production ideas. You’ll also have access to our blog and our Audio Production Online Store!
See YOU on Facebook!
Do you love your IT vendor? HOLDCOM would like to recognize outstanding customer service from your vendor or outsourcer. Nominate your vendor and tell us why you love them and YOU could win a free Custom Message-On-Hold program. Send your story to newsletter@holdcom.com.
HOLDCOM is active in our community and we invite you to share these upcoming events with your friends, family and coworkers. We're looking for your support, so get involved! Contact us today at info@holdcom.com.
October 26th 2008: Join us on Sunday October 26th 2008 as we Make Strides Against Breast Cancer!
This annual event, held at Bergen Community College in Paramus NJ, is part of the American Cancer Society’s ongoing quest to raise awareness and help eliminate Breast Cancer. For more information, visit Making Strides Against Breast Cancer.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Calvert Memorial Hospital will host its Harvest Ball on Saturday, November 8th. The black-tie gala celebrates its 20th anniversary with a return to the timeless elegance defined by the Art Deco era. Proceeds from the annual fundraiser, sponsored by the Calvert Memorial Hospital Foundation, will be used to purchase early warning software and advanced video and monitoring equipment to keep an even closer eye on the critically ill patients in the hospital's intensive care unit.
Holdcom recently produced the audio behind the in-house commercial the Foundation would use to promote the event. The following is a letter of thanks from Diane P. Tarhan, Foundation Supervisor.
"I would like to thank you for all of your help in coordinating the voiceover for the Harvest Ball ad produced for us by Britannia Productions. Susan has a wonderful voice and she sounds just great on the commercial. Please let her know how grateful we are for her help also. I know the commercial will bring in more sponsors and guests to this year's event.
I spoke with Veronica a few minutes ago and expressed our gratitude for Holdcom's help.
Thank you again for your help with the commercial."
Diane P. Tarhan
Foundation Supervisor
Calvert Memorial Hospital Foundation, Inc.
PO Box 2127
Prince Frederick, MD 20678
410-535-8178
410-535-8397 (Fax)
www.calverthospital.org/foundation
HOLDCOM’s innovative on line audio marketing store and partner stores have been fantastically received by our customers and partners’ customers alike. As a quick and easy resource for businesses to purchase Voice Production and Message-On-Hold content, our on line stores have sold thousands of professional audio production projects to date. Since our virtual doors opened, we’ve solicited and listened to your feedback and have continued to make changes, to optimize your shopping experience. In addition to updating our audio player for one-time audio (when you return to a previously visited page, you don’t need to listen to the page audio again unless you want to), eliminating overlapping audio (one voice sample plays at a time), and adding online chat capability (in addition to toll-free phone assistance), we’ve also made changes to welcome the growing global demands.
With so many companies going global these days, many are turning to HOLDCOM for high quality professional recordings in a range of foreign languages. Featuring the best voice talents available, we’ve now added male & female French, French Canadian, and Spanish voices to our online solution. Need more exotic languages?! Just let us know and we’ll call on any of the hundreds of voice talents from around the world who are standing by, ready to record your script.
As our on line presence grows and word spreads about our on line solution, more and more customers are knocking on our “server” looking for services. HOLDCOM has responded with a new and improved check out for international customers. We’ve retooled our check out to include international transactions for the United Kingdom and Australia in addition to Canada. HOLDCOM continues to be your number one resource for professional recordings no matter where you do business. We’d like to welcome all of our new international clients.
If you haven’t already visited our on line store, click on by and check it out. You’ll be glad you did. And don’t worry about when you visit; it’s open 24 hours a day for your convenience. www.audioproductionstore.com.
“The HOLDCOM Voice” is NOT the original newsletter that we created here at HOLDCOM. It’s more the grandchild of earlier less successful versions. In this month’s 20th Anniversary article, we look back to the earlier version of our newsletter and reminisce about the quality and technology behind them.
Always on the cutting edge of marketing, one of the first ongoing marketing initiatives we started was the first HOLDCOM newsletter back in 1990. Then called “The On Hold Times”, it was a paper version that was printed on both sides and mailed to clients. Click here to view originals. With very few editions “The On Hold Times” was later expanded to an eleven by seventeen, four page booklet. The content had increased as well as the size, but it was still on paper and didn’t have a regular publication cycle. Click here to view.
During the mid 90’s our client base was growing and so was our staff. With upgrades to our network and CRM solutions, the newsletter moved into the digital age and we began creating monthly faxed editions. The newsletter had really evolved. It had a brand new name, “Sound Communicator”, and we were creating it every month – instead of when we had time. We could even merge contact information into each newsletter and since it was faxed, we stopped printing reams of paper. However, clients didn’t like receiving the newsletter via fax since the pages curled and faded from thermal faxes or used up precious fax toner & ink. Clients would also misplace them or toss them before reading them. Click here to view a copy.
Frustrated, the newsletter committee stayed idle for months and months. Their efforts shifted to other projects like updating the content on our website. In 2003, HOLDCOM underwent a major branding makeover as well as a complete redesign of our website. It was at this time that our plans to relaunch the newsletter as an e-newsletter became a reality. After months of planning and a contest to rename the newsletter, we sent our first e-newsletter back in July of 2004. Since that time, we’ve maintained monthly updates and have grown a readership of over 12,000 contacts.
What started out as a Celtic Festival over 2000 years ago, has evolved into one of the most enjoyable holidays celebrated by millions of children (and adults) every year… Halloween.
Back then, November 1st marked the end of summer and the harvest season and the beginning of the dark, cold winter. On the night of October 31st, the Celts celebrated Samhain (pronounced sow-in), when it was believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to earth causing trouble and damaging crops.
To celebrate the event, Druids built huge sacred bonfires, where the people gathered to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities. The Celts would wear costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, and attempted to tell each other's fortunes.
By A.D. 43, Romans had conquered the majority of Celtic territory. Over the four hundred years that the Romans ruled the Celtic lands, two festivals of Roman origin (Feralia & Pomona) were combined with the traditional Celtic celebration of Samhain. In the seventh century, Pope Boniface IV designated November 1st “All Saints' Day”, a time to honor saints and martyrs. The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.
Halloween facts:
Halloween is second only to Christmas in spending. Consumers will spend over $2.5 Billion during Halloween.
It is believed that the Irish began the tradition of Trick or Treating. In preparation for All Hallow's Eve, Irish townsfolk would visit neighbors and ask for contributions of food for a feast in the town.
The Irish carved turnips and put coals or small candles inside. They were placed outside their homes on All Hallow's Eve to ward off evil spirits. They were also known to use potatoes and rutabagas. When Irish immigrants came to America, they quickly discovered that Jack O'Lanterns were much easier to carve out and began using them. This truly neat tradition quickly spread to the general population in America and elsewhere.
“The HOLDCOM Voice” invites you to meet Jessica who's grounded in her work, but lives on the edge…
HV: How did you get into voiceover work?
Jessica: I used to be a broadcast producer at various New York advertising agencies. One day, someone asked me to do a “scratch track” for a TV commercial - to be used temporarily, until the “real” voiceover artist would record later that week. Some people at the agency heard my recording, and highly suggested I do voiceovers full time. I eventually quit production in order to focus on full-time voiceover acting.
HV: So then how long would you say you have been working as a voiceover?
Jessica: 7 years.
HV: What is the most exciting/interesting aspect of working as a voiceover talent? Jessica: Getting to be someone else every day! From an evil witch to a college student, to a talking giraffe, every day brings something new.
HV: Do you have something unique you’d like to share about yourself with our readers?
Jessica: I’m looking forward to my next skydive jump!
Jessica’s voice has been featured behind well-known products and companies including Maybelline, MTV, American Airlines, Pizza Hut, Pokemon, Grand Theft Auto, Microsoft, Old Navy – and tons more!
Check out Jessica’s voice & consider her for your next project at www.holdcom.com/voices.
Join HOLDCOM and hundreds of colleagues and business partners from the customer care profession at the SOCAP 2008 Annual Conference, October 5-8, at the Loews Miami Beach Hotel in Miami, Florida! This year's Annual Conference will be packed full of interesting, relevant sessions, great speakers and fun activities that will increase your networking opportunities and help you to learn best practices so you can transform your business and succeed in your careers. Download the brochure.
Sessions at the SOCAP Annual Conference will be organized around these timely themes: Hispanic Marketing, Consumer Loyalty/Advocacy, Corporate Social Responsibility and Professional Development. Also, by popular demand, SOCAP will offer two special plenary sessions during the conference on Hispanic marketing and Generation Y issues. Keynote Speakers: D’Arcy Rudnay, Sr. Vice President, Corporate Communications, Comcast Corporation and Joel Zeff, Humorist and Author have been added to the program, along with Tony Hsieh, President/CEO, Zappos.com and Kelly McDonald, President, McDonald Marketing.
In addition to the main conference sessions, don't miss another special workshop on social media at the Annual Conference, along with SOCAP's Golf Tournament which will be held at the historic Doral Golf Resort and Spa in Miami. SOCAP's Special Affinity Networking Groups (SANGs) will also meet during the conference.
At this year's event, SOCAP will celebrate its 35th Anniversary and the many accomplishments within the customer care profession. SOCAP chapters will also be honored with the Chapter Achievement Awards at the conference.
There will be something for everyone at the SOCAP Annual Conference in Miami, so don't miss this event! Register and reserve your spot today!
Today we honor our old friend the audio cassette tape. Born in the 60’s, it is now in the autumn of its life with winter coming in fast. Complications of an analog lifestyle living in a digital world, compounded by lack of use and availability of a compatible playback system are the causes of death.
The compact audio cassette was invented and released by the Philips Company of the Netherlands back in 1962. It featured a high-quality polyester 1/8 inch tape which was produced by BASF. Cassette tapes saw their first valuable use in the United States the following year, as sales of the Noreclo Carry-Corder dictation machine grew. The consumer demand for blank tape for personal music-recording was unanticipated by Philips.
The cassette tape is survived by its digital tape siblings, its compact and DVD disc cousins, and billions of mp3 grandchildren.
The cassette tape brought millions of smiles to millions of people and will be remembered for its durability and sound quality, having out-lived its parents, the Reel-to-Reel and 8-Track tape.
Professional Audio: The Right Prescription for Healthcare Organizations
In a past issue of “The Holdcom Voice”, we reported that Audio Marketing has become the “secret weapon” for Healthcare Public Relations. Since that time, many major healthcare facilities have found new and inventive ways to utilize Holdcom services.
Born Genius or My First Melody
-The birth of a child is always a blessed event, but Palisades Medical Center in North Bergen, NJ wanted to take it one step further. They turned to Holdcom. Now, every time a baby is born in the hospital’s nursery, the sound of "Brahm’s Lullaby" fills the air throughout the hospital. Mothers, fathers and hospital staff have all given positive feedback. Comments from the newborns were not immediately available.
“Up-Lifting” Messages
-Newark Beth Israel redefined elevator music, thanks to Holdcom. After producing their Message-On-Hold program, the hospital’s telecom team wanted to go beyond their phone system and play the message in the building’s elevators. Holdcom provided Newark Beth Israel with equipment, on a trial basis, for broadcasting their Message-On-Hold program in their elevators. Months later, it’s a keeper…according to the hospital’s Telecom Director.
Virtual Greeter
-Visitors to Community Medical Center in Toms River, NJ are no longer greeted with silence as they enter the hospital’s lobby. Now, the sounds of classical music and a warm, friendly voice thank the hospital’s visitors. Community Medical looked to Holdcom to fulfill that need and they are pleased with the results.
Holdcom’s Audio Marketing services are more than Message-On-Hold and Voice Recordings for Telephony applications. Sharing information with callers, visitors, or anyone who comes into contact with your business or organization, continues to be an invaluable asset. Rely on our 20 years of experience and professionalism for your next project. Have a unique use of audio you’d like to implement or have featured? Contact us at newsletter@holdcom.com.
