Outsource Marketing Solutions blog

Operation Ward 57 Tshirts

Seattle based rock band, Fall from Grace (FFG) have climbed to the top of 7,000 bands in a nationwide competition for America’s best unsigned band. The competition turned into a reality TV show hit airing weekly on Fuse TV, www.fuse.tv. Bodog Music Battle of the Bands is the story of 10 unsigned bands touring the country as they vie for a $1 million record deal. Battle finalists FFG, will use their new-found TV audience and this opportunity to help America’s Wounded Warriors by joining forces with Operation Ward 57.

In 2006, two nursing staff of Ward 57 created a T-shirt to give their amputee patients a morale boost and a sense of belonging. When Semer’s husband SGT Scott Cameron was stationed there as a nurse in January of 07, Semer learned first-hand about the numerous problems facing the hospital and patient care on Ward 57 in particular. SGT Cameron and Semer revised the shirt and started this national effort through NFL player Kerry Carter’s not-for-profit, Think Big Foundation after a personal visit by Carter to a young amputee on the ward from Seattle and….a very big Seahawk fan.

Members and fans of Seattle’s FFG will wear the WARD 57 T-shirts during their upcoming promo events, rehearsals and at the live TV finale in Los Angeles on Sept. 5th at the House of Blues. Whether they win or not is up to America, however FFG is committed to educating and recruiting other musicians to support the efforts of OPERATION WARD 57.
(source)

Web 2.0 Apps - Everybody's Doing It. (Even Newspapers!)

I gave a talk in Florida at the FAOP meeting and in Texas at the TAOP meeting on Blogs, Podcasts, Wikis, Microsites, Lenses and Email Newsletters: Using Today's Web Technology to Maximize Your Marketing Reach.
I know it's a long title but, if you're talking about stuff that people are unfamiliar with, it doesn't hurt to have a long title.

Basically, the talk was about Web 2.0 applications and how to use them in your O&P business.
Why?
Everybody's doing it.
Even the newspapers.

I got this article recently from Online Media Daily's email newsletter.

"A new study of newspapers' Web offerings shows that online video has become a nearly ubiquitous feature offered by major U.S. publications. The Bivings Group study, which analyzed the Web offerings of the top 100 newspapers according to Fas-Fax data from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, found that 92 of the largest newspaper sites now offer video, a 31 percent jump from a year ago. Their video sources are varied: 39 papers offer original video content, 26 use video from the Associated Press, 13 use video from local news outlets and 10 papers use at least two types of video content on their site.

The study found that use of other online features increased in nearly every category, too. Ninety-seven of the 100 papers offer RSS and text feeds, while 95 have at least one reporter blog. Forty-nine papers have podcasts, compared with 31 last year, while 44 provide some sort of bookmarking, compared with just seven last year. The number of sites requiring users to register also increased to 29, with three requiring paid subscription after registering. Mobile offerings from U.S. newspaper publishers are also on the rise, with some 53 papers creating content specifically for mobile devices.

Newspapers are also adding social media features. The number of papers permitting user comments rose from 19 to 33, while nearly 25 percent accept some kind of user-generated content, from videos to photos and articles. Five papers, including USA Today, The Denver Post and The Washington Post offer social networking on their site..." READ MORE

BridgePoint & Reynolds

BridgePoint Medical, Lexington, Kentucky, an independently owned prosthetic and orthotic company, announced it has acquired Reynolds Prosthetics & Orthotics Inc., located in the Knoxville area, and retained John Reynolds, CPO, as an owner-operator. The acquired entity will retain its name and locations in Maryville and Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and will continue to offer the same patient care without interruption.
(The EDGE)

Smells You Love: New Car Smell? Kentucky Fried Chicken Aroma? Brand New Boston Overlap Brace Scent?

This is a true story.

KFC Unveils New $2.99 Deals Via First-Ever Aroma-Focused Corporate Product Placement

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Aug. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- In a marketing first, KFC is highlighting the launch of its $2.99 Deals by placing the mouth-watering aroma of Kentucky Fried Chicken in the halls and offices of corporate America.

Forget television integrations or corporate naming rights, Kentucky Fried Chicken's first-ever "scent-focused" pilot program teamed KFC with corporate mail rooms nationwide. Along with carrying inter-office mail, overnight packages and bills, mail carts in Washington, D.C., Chicago and Dallas delivered the aroma of freshly prepared Kentucky Fried Chicken during pre-lunch mail drops.

READ THE REST

Personally, I think it would be much more effective if they didn't tell the entire world what they were going to be doing until after they'd already done it.

Really not sure how this can be applied to O&P - in terms of the ACTUAL orthotic and/or prosthetic devices, but I do know that the use of smell (accidentally or on purpose) - aroma marketing - is very powerful and can create very positive OR negative reactions.

According to a recent study, 83% of  all brand information we receive is purely visual.
However, the sense of smell emotionally affects humans up to 75% more than any other sense (Source: M. Lindstrom – BRAND sense).

What does your office smell like?
Kentucky Fried Chicken?
Vanilla?
Cinnamon?
Burnt plastic?

More on aroma marketing

Afghan Landmine Survivors Organization (ALSO)

I received this email today from Sadiq Mohibi.
He is a graduate of CSPO and a very dear friend of my parents.

If you would like to help them achieve their goals email Sadiq or afghan.lso@gmail.com or write to him at:

ALSO Office, Second Floor Baser Masoud Pharmacy, Street 7th, Qala-e-Fathullah, Kabul, Afghanistan

Dear friends all around the world,

I hope this letter find you healthy and happy

I would like to introduce a new Afghan Organization called Afghan Landmine Survivors Organization (ALSO).

ALSO is committed to improving the living conditions of persons with disabilities through: advocacy, disability awareness, education, vocational training, and rehabilitation and inclusion into Afghan society.

To campaign for total banning of landmines and cluster munitions and other ammunitions which harm civilians.

So ALSO would like to have your strong hands as mutual collaboration for the support of persons with disabilities.

ALSO welcomes any comments and suggestion for better achievement of its goals.

Please find attached the introduction letter of ALSO.

Kind regards

Sadiq Mohibi
co-founder of ALSO

The Ultimate Way to Store Your Inservice PowerPoint Presentations (and all your other important data, if you're a girl!)

Finest beauty Silver Shade crystals set in Ceralun Style and Simplicity gracefully fuse with crystal light, due to the Silver Shade crystals set in Ceralun. When useful is not enough, the new Active Crystals USB Memory Key gives soul to your data sharing. Stylish jewel in beautiful polished stainless steel Functionality at its ultimate and fantasy at it brightest. The new Active Crystals USB Memory Key comes in a stylish and precious design, made of polished stainless steel. Beautiful necklace and storage pouch Attach your Active Crystals USB Memory Key to the beautiful necklace and wear it as a stylish charm around your neck. To protect your precious Active Crystals USB Memory Key, a special designed pouch is included. Performance and capacity 1GB storage capacity for large data files A useful 1GB gives you the capacity to store, swap and share large files like documents, music and pictures via the USB port of your PC or laptop. Fast data transfer with high-speed USB 2.0 High-speed data transfer rates significantly cut annoying waiting time when you're copying large multimedia files to or from your computer's hard disk. Share and store up to 250 songs & 1000 photos This stylish jewel has been developed to share and store up to 250 songs and 1000 pictures and makes it ideal for personal, portable and powerful use. From a mother carrying around pictures of her children, to business women carrying their files, with extreme ease and convenience. Specially designed and easy to use software included A complete software suite is included, which will run automatically from the Active Crystals USB Memory Key and give you access to useful features, like file synchronization and automatic file compression. Safe and secure Protect your valuable, personal data with a password

Oops, They Did it Again

Ex-Streak fights through pain to star at St. Ambrose

"I think I have a lot better idea how to deal with the injury now," she said. "I'm wearing orthodics, and those help. I went through two-a-days with the team, but now I'm just bicycling until the season starts.

Major Magazines Love Prosthetics

Popular Science loves prosthetics.

So does Time Out Chicago.

So does Time Magazine.

What I Learned from "Orthoticist" or "Play the miss!"

People can't spell or - maybe it's people can't type. 

Either way, as my friend Kenny Rotten would say..."Liz, that's irrevelant."
(And yes, it is spelled wrong - I swear, that's how he says it!)

What is relevant is that online you need to take all the spelling and typing errors into account.

As one of the dad's at my son's soccer games would always yell at the top of his lungs...
"Play the miss! Play the miss!"

Translation: Take advantage of the opportunity provided you when someone else misses the ball.
Love it.

Online, you gotta play the miss.

People search for (and these are all searches that have actually been made on Google):
orthoticist
prostheticist
oandp
o&p
orthoist/prosthetist

Are you playing the miss?

The Vanderbilt Arm: Mini Rocket Engine Powered Prosthesis

Rocket-powered mechanical arm could revolutionize prosthetics

 

It was the poor power-to-weight ratio of batteries that drove Goldfarb [Michael Goldfarb, Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Vanderbilt] to look for alternatives in 2000 while he was working on a previous exoskeleton project for DARPA. He decided to miniaturize the monopropellant rocket motor system that is used for maneuvering in orbit by the space shuttle. His adaptation impressed the Johns Hopkins researchers, so they offered him $2.7 million in research funding to apply this approach to the development of a prosthetic arm.

Goldfarb's power source is about the size of a pencil and contains a special catalyst that causes hydrogen peroxide to burn. When this compound burns, it produces pure steam. The steam is used to open and close a series of valves. The valves are connected to the spring-loaded joints of the prosthesis by belts made of a special monofilament used in appliance handles and aircraft parts. A small sealed canister of hydrogen peroxide that easily fits in the upper arm can provide enough energy to power the device for 18 hours of normal activity.

The first prototype, which took a year to develop, was powered by "cold gas": compressed nitrogen. It allowed the researchers to test the fundamental design and to address the basic problems of control, leakage and noise. The team was happy to discover that they could solve all of the basic problems by designing the valves with the highest precision possible, with clearances of 50 millionths of an inch.

"There are only a handful of machinists who can make valves with this precision. We found one and asked him to make them with the highest precision possible, which is actually higher than he can measure," says Goldfarb. "Normally in projects like this the surprises are unpleasant, but this was a pleasant one. The valves didn't leak, click or hiss!"

After getting the arm working with cold gas, the engineers tore it down and rebuilt it to operate on "hot gas" - steam that is heated to 450 degrees Fahrenheit by the hydrogen peroxide reaction.

"Unconventional Power Source Could Revolutionize the Design of Prosthetic Limbs"

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