Quenching Brands' Thirst for Consumer Insight




With the 2008 NCAA Men’s Championship Game soon upon us, many will find themselves tossing back a few beers during the festivities. Beer is the oldest recorded alcoholic beverage in history, with origins dating back to ancient times, even as far back as ancient Egypt. But why do we drink the sudsy brew, let alone its light version?

Miller Lite wants to know.

scenarioDNA, a consumer insights firm that serves Fortune 500 companies, utilized our MOVO Mobile solution to assist Miller Lite in conducting market research regarding consumer choices and consumption habits among light beer drinkers. Our solution allowed the company to engage consumers through their mobile phones to attain valuable feedback. Participants simply sent a text message with a keyword to take the survey.

scenarioDNA uses non-traditional methods to provide brands deeper insights and new ways of reaching more elusive consumers. Their services take the form of innovative custom research and strategic planning that helps grow brands and build healthy businesses.

“It’s not about one big idea anymore. It’s about a bunch of ideas plugging into the right consumers,” says Marie Tupot, research director at scenarioDNA.

This new partnership between scenarioDNA and Neighborhood America adds our solutions to the company’s suite of services and extends its offerings to their diverse customer base.

Coming to a City Near You


What do Little Rock, Arkansas and Charlottesville, Virginia have in common?

The Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPO) of these cities are the first to take advantage of our partnership with the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO) and benefit from our solution at a substantially discounted fee.

Our Web-based software enables work teams to create online forums around projects, issues, events, legislation and rulemaking initiatives. The solution greatly simplifies and improves the traditional citizen participation process, enabling staff to easily collect, analyze, and create reports from all public comments captured online, at meetings, or both.

Metroplan - a council of local governments that serves a four-county region of central Arkansas, the Little Rock-North Little Rock urban area – and the Thomas Jefferson Planning District will be utilizing our solution to gather public input on a variety of issues and projects in their respective cities.

Neighborhood America is privileged to support AMPO and their goal of empowering MPOs through innovative solutions.

For more information, visit AMPO.

Our Customer's Strategic Guide
By Lori Burke, Director of Human Resources

When I was hired as the director of human resources at Neighborhood America last October, I was tasked with recruiting the best and brightest minds that would be involved in making our customers successful. These customers represent Fortune 500 companies, government agencies, and major media networks that trust our company to get the job done - and our employees are the reason we can make that promise to them wholeheartedly.

We’ve initiated a team of customer account executives that can partner with our customers to help them succeed… because they’ve been there themselves.

The concept, a non-traditional approach to account management, came from within the company after many discussions on how we could improve the way we serve our customers, which is critical to Neighborhood America’s competitive position. So my role has been to help find the perfect candidates, the right fit for the team.

Recently, we added four new team members who possess cross industry, cross capabilities:


John Luciano is a former educator with international business experience in sales and marketing. He’s created strategic partnerships with Fortune 500 companies, and his knowledge of enterprise software gives him the unique ability to assess technology and what role it plays into new processes.


Andrea Kostiuk brings with her several years of experience in the mobile industry, from working with startups to managing Fortune 1000 telecommunications companies. She’s talented at exploring the possibilities of utilizing mobile products for businesses, how it works and how it can benefit the customer.



Dennis Seilhamer brings to the table a rare blend of business and public sector insight. He possesses vast knowledge and experience in corporate marketing, working for companies such as Proctor & Gamble. In the political arena, he's worked closely with the public sector at the local and state level as an advisor/strategist.


Matt Vacondios has extensive experience in sales, marketing and public relations with companies such as Ford Motor Company. An entrepreneur himself, Matt is familiar with the challenges associated with dynamic environments.

These new hires join our most senior members, including Delphine Amoroso, Vicki Richards, and senior director Anne Hoffman.

The mission of the team is to look at the challenges the customer is facing from a business perspective, not simply from a technology standpoint. Simply put, the customer account executive is their strategic guide. The team presents the customer with fresh ideas to enhance existing projects or acts as a resource for them to try out new ideas.

Passion and energy among our customer account executives is imperative. Our company depends on it, and so do our customers.

Isobar, Adidas, and Neighborhood America Shine in First Round of ADDY Awards Competition


Honoring creative excellence in nearly every area of advertising, the ADDY Awards are the only major national creative competition with three rigorous levels of judging—at the local, regional and national levels.

Neighborhood America submitted the Adidas “Basketball is a Brotherhood” campaign on behalf of Isobar to compete against more than 400 entries in the 2008 Suncoast Chapter of the American Advertising Federation (AAF-Suncoast) ADDY Competition.

Isobar won a Gold ADDY - the highest level of creative excellence. A slate of iconic judges who've managed advertising accounts from Harley Davidson to Kraft Foods awarded 43 Gold ADDY's, 63 Silver ADDY's and 78 Bronze ADDY's at the forty-seventh annual Gala.

Besides winning the Gold ADDY in the Online, Mobile Marketing category, the judges honored our partners with an Amy Award in Interactive Media for the highest scoring entry within the major division.

Through its partnership with Isobar, Neighborhood America managed the text-messaging component of the campaign. The campaign featured some of the biggest NBA stars teaching young players the value of playing as a team. Consumers could “join the Brotherhood” by sending in a text message to receive personalized recordings from their favorite NBA All Stars, or by visiting the campaign website.

Work is entered into the ADDY competition on the local level through over 210 local Advertising Federations nationwide. Work that is selected as the very best in each local market advances to compete on the regional level. Finally, regional winners from the 14 American Advertising Federation (AAF) Districts across the country compete in the national level of competition, making a National ADDY one of the toughest awards in the industry to win.

The National Awards Show and Gala is set for June 10, 2008.

Southwest Florida's 50 Top Power Players
by Gulfshore Business


Every place has its power players - those individuals who play a lead role in molding their community.

Neighborhood America president and CEO Kim Kobza ranks among the Gulf Coast's most influential movers and shakers.

Read the full article that appeared in Gulfshore Business.

Content Management Companies Can Learn From Social Networks
by George Dearing

I continue to be impressed with how vendors outside the CMS space are helping companies manage content, and lots of it... and Neighborhood America is walking the walk, pointing me to several examples where its tools were being used on highly trafficked sites such as HGTV and Fox News.

Read the full article that appeared in the Information Week Blog.


Collaboration in Government IT, Part 2: Putting It in Place
by Andrew K. Burger

Government agencies are also turning to social networking and other collaborative Web 2.0 technology to facilitate greater, more effective constituent and intra-governmental interaction.

Read the full article that appeared in eCommerce Times.

2008 NAB Show Highlights Latest Technologies


It's admittedly his favorite conference to attend. As a past speaker and repeat attendee, Neighborhood America CTO David Bankston heads back to Las Vegas, alongside digital media producer Bill Colletti, for the 2008 National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show.

The NAB Show is the world’s largest event for the latest technologies in all professional media industries. With more than 1,600 companies, the event showcases digital content, technology and innovation across consumer and business segments. There are 200 new exhibitors; 40 countries; 19 industries – cable, content owners/programmers, film and entertainment, enterprise, social media, telecom, wireless and more.

The premiere event enables us to connect with potential customers in the industry, and allows Bankston and Colletti to further their expertise on next-generation technology.

How to Drive Revenue in the Digital Era


The 2008 American Business Media (ABM) Digital Velocity conference in New York City featured insights on the Web 2.0 phenomenon of social media and its impact on the publishing industry.

Jim Sexton, senior vice president and editorial director of SPC Digital, spoke on behalf of Neighborhood America on the panel “Social Media Success Stories: Publishers are Turning Online Communities into Power Tools.” Sexton is the former senior vice president of Scripps Networks Interactive and has worked closely with Neighborhood America on several HGTV.com communities, including the widely successful Rate My Space.

Sexton offered great real-world examples of how social networks can work in favor of the media brand. The panel’s input opened several minds and a few opportunities, but there’s still a lot of work that has to be done when it comes to helping traditional media adopt new technologies and new revenue strategies. Neighborhood America has a great opportunity to lead this discussion.