Skilled Media Design

Medical Writing

Twice a month we craft articles for the New Milford Medical Group's featured article.
Below is a recent article on Lyme Disease

We could be showing another disgusting picture of a deer tick, but you already know the disease comes from ticks, and you almost certainly know that Lyme disease is practically an epidemic in our area.
We have some thoughts on how to avoid infection, how to identify it, and what to do if you suspect you've been bitten.
If you get infected, in most cases, antibiotics do the trick. But when they the disease goes untreated, Lyme Disease can be devastating. We want you to know about the disease, how it is spread, and what we at New Milford Medical Group can do to help keep you safe or get you better!

Lyme disease is caused by bacteria called Borrelia burgdorferi (B burgdorferi). Blacklegged ticks (deer ticks) can carry these bacteria. Not all species of ticks can carry these bacteria. You can get the disease if you are bitten by an infected tick.
Lyme disease was first reported in the United States in 1977 in the town of Old Lyme, Connecticut. There are three stages of Lyme disease.
Stage 1 is called early localized Lyme disease. The bacteria have not yet spread throughout the body.
Stage 2 is called early disseminated Lyme disease. In stage 2, the bacterium often spreads to other parts of the body. Some two to 10 weeks after being infected, about 15% of untreated patients may get very sick, with neurological symptoms, which can include meningitis with intense headaches, facial palsy or other cranial nerve problems, or severe pain or paralysis of nerves radiating into the arms, legs or abdomen.
Stage 3 is called late disseminated Lyme disease. In stage 3, which may happen if Lyme remains undetected and untreated, some six in 10 patients develop intermittent attacks of arthritis affecting one or more joints. Eventually one or both knees may become inflamed and the arthritis more persistent. Stage 3 can be harder to treat than the earlier stages of Lyme disease, although most patients are helped by a longer, four- to eight-week course of antibiotics. In a few cases, patients will suffer inflammation in a knee for months or even several years after the spirochetal bacterium is gone, a condition known as antibiotic-refractory Lyme arthritis
Unfortunately, it is all too easy to come in contact with these little parasites, doing outside activities gardening, hunting, or hiking in an area where Lyme disease occurs, having a pet that may carry infected ticks home, even just walking in high grass can easily expose you to infection.
Read the whole post…

SEO

We created an extensive set of keyword rich pages for an antique dealer. By analyzing the Google search terms for the site we were able to craft copy that has impressions up 300% over the previous six months and clicks have doubled

Antique and fashionable cameras, prized for their beauty and historic value, are pieces we'd love to buy – whether you're looking to sell that Brownie your great-grandmother used, or a Nikon I from 'Occupied Japan'! These are special pieces, and there are many rare items in this field that we look out for; a Mamiyaflex C, for instance, or an old German Leica. We're always open for appointments if you'd like to come buy, sell, or appraise any vintage camera, as well as other photographic equipment, such as meters, lights, and projectors!If you search for a way to buy and sell antiques near me, for antique buyers near me, or antique appraisal near me, Bob Kretchko Antiques is the place to look.
Read the whole website…

Government

We researched and wrote the copy for the Economic Development Corporation for New Milford

Quality of Life
New Milford is bio-tech companies and one-room schoolhouses. It is horse farms, dairy farms and server farm. It is factories for paper goods, steel, brassieres, and leather goods. New Milford is as traditional as it can be, as forward looking as it needs to be, and nearly perfect the way it is.
Today, and every work day, more than five thousand of our residents will head down to New York City, or Stamford, or White Plains; fanning out,headed south, north, east and west, they have jobs as executives, managers, senior vice presidents, and secretaries. As they drive down, or to the train, they pass our teachers on their way to school, farmers headed out into their fields, as well as bankers, lawyers, architects, doctors, and administrators headed for their offices in town. And for all the residents working out of town, there are an equal number who stay right here, baking bread or pizza, repairing roads or computers, painting houses or pictures, writing novels or prescriptions.
New Milford isn't just 'ye olde New England'; picturesque, scenic, rustic, we are also great schools, hospitals, property values, restaurants, and more. We have a great way of life in New Milford, where you and your business will fit in beautifully. Read on – find out what makes New Milford the place it is; New Milford is more than just warm, beautiful, and historic, it is also a modern infrastructure, great local government, dining and nightlife, shopping and antiquing, Fairs, schools and so much more.
Download the complete piece…

White Papers

We researched and wrote an analysis of digital marketing trends for a small not-for-profit

May you live in interesting times.
Surely, the ancient Chinese curse has never been more apt than when applied to the current state of the space in which marketers, particularly those with budgetary constraints, are operating. Local advertisers and not-for-proft organizations face real challenges as they operate in this new digital marketplace. The traditional channels, print, radio, tv, and outdoor, have changed dramatically, and in the case of print are at best moribund. This is entirely due to the advent of the new digital delivery systems for marketing messaging. Even such traditional services such as the Yellow Pages, which though it carries ads, is considered primarily a listing of data, are succumbing to the wild market fragmentation that similar electronic data listing services (like google and yahoo) have engendered.
Currently, we can see the following digital channels for interacting with and marketing to consumers: websites, digital phones, other digital devices, digital outdoor, SEO, social media, online contests, digital radio, cable, online print, online viral marketing, as well as email and coop and affnity marketing. This wealth of digital clutter has already produced an audience that is savvy, even jaded, about new offerings, so any marketing effort that is undertaken has to be at least as good (well designed, well written, navigable, compelling, involving) as an offering from Disney, CNN, NASA, BMW, etc.
Because we are only about half way through this latest phase of Schumpeter's Wave of innovation we can expect there to be at least another fve to ten years of on-going change in this space before equilibrium is reached. It therefore behooves us to respond to this change as it evolves, as we cannot reasonably assume that a business will survive without changing while waiting for the market to stop evolving.
This being said, the digital marketspace has also created unprecedented affordable opportunities for reach and frequency, as long as certain prerequisites are met by the advertiser, and the marketing program is designed with a clear scope and attainable objectives.
Download the complete piece…

Proposals

We have written proposals for state funding, web development, software, media plans, email campaigns and more

Overview: This proposal is for the redevelopment of the AWS website with the intention of accomplishing the following goals:
1. Encourage Adoptions
a) manage photos/information internally
b) update adoptee status (eg available, new, PETCO, adopted, etc)
2. Generate revenue for AWS
a) donations
b) gifts
c) sponsored programs (ie tiles)
d) store
3. promote events that AWS is sponsoring or producing
a) sell tickets
b) show photos from completed events
4. makes the AWS available to a larger audience on all devices
a) makes the site an interesting destination to an internet audience
b) device neutral, so there is a good browser experience for mobile and desktop
5. search engine optimized – best practices for modern websites
a) properly meta tagged
b) microformat tagged
c) adoptees listed on google
d) sitemap and robot friendly, posted into dmoz, bing and google webmaster tools
6. generates quantifiable results
a) analytics with goals
b) basic SEO practices
Execution:
To accomplish these goals we recommend a complete overhaul of the current site. There is no reason to retain any of the current site's design. Existing content will be ported over to the new layout, and the only element from the current look that will be retained is the logo, in order to keep continuity with the current site.
We propose building a site that can accommodate any ultimate content depth; thus there will be room for expansion as the site grows. To this end, we propose that the new site be in large part database driven. The development environment that we favor is AMP (Apache Server, MySQL database, and PHP as the page language), this is all open-source technology, widely accepted and supported, and incredibly robust. What all this gobbledy-gook means to the AWS is the site will be able to change as often as is desired, and the changes can be made by anyone who has permissions to make updates. Design:
The design of the new site will be based on approved proof files, which will be sent to the client. Our working design is attached, and is not a final design, and is presented only for your consideration. This being a responsive layout, it will appear differently on different devices. For instance, the menu bar will compact into the familiar three bar icon on a phone, but will display as above on the desktop. Information Architecture:
Pending further conversation, we recommend creating a site with the seven sections. These will also be the links on the navigation bar, and will always be visible.
Home– The home page will be a consistent link on the nav bar, and as our first and primary point of contact with visitors it will have the following content at all times. The content can be divided into above the fold and below the fold (the fold, though a term left over from print, describes the content that is visible at page load).
Above the fold content:
1. Logo and navigation bar – this will show on every page, and via color or text highlighting will denote the current section being viewed. The links from the nav bar will be detailed below.
2. Slideshow – this will be the primary imagery on the home page, and will include copy on each image as a caption, the caption will also include key search words as applicable. The slides will showcase the change from then to now, illustrating the progress of the restoration.
3. Blurb – This will talk about the value of AWS to the community, and can contain a call to action (donate or contribute).
There's more, but it's proprietary…

Newsletter Content

For a realtor we wrote the content for a printed monthly newsletter

Local Boy Lives on in Song!
While most Americans are familiar with the Yankee Doodle tune, and can recite some of its verses, few are aware that the original Yankee Doodle was a real person, Colonel Thomas Fitch V who lived with his two younger brothers Ebenezer and Timothy, on Chestnut Hill in Wilton.
Colonel Fitch, whose father was the Governor of the colony of Connecticut, led Connecticut volunteers in their fight against the French at what is now Renssaelaer, New York. On their departure, distraught by the lack of real uniforms, particularly in comparison to the nattily dressed British soldiers, the troops improvised plumes from chicken feathers for their hats.
The poorly dressed Connecticut volunteers were met with derision, and a British surgeon, Dr Shuckburgh, penned a satirical verse, set to the tune of a popular song "Lucy Locket", and Colonel Fitch became Yankee Doodle, a term the British used with derision. The colonists happily adopted the term (and the song), and during the revolution, it was often played while surrendered British troops were paraded before their captors. The real surprise, though, is that the term “macaroni” in the song does not refer to pasta, but to a very fashionable group of young men in London who gathered at the Macaroni Club. So when Colonel Fitch marched up with his rag-tag group of Connecticut volunteers stuck a feather in his hat, and declared he was “macaroni”, he was declaring that he (and his men) were fops!

Was Wilton where Benedict Arnold went Wrong?
On April 27, 1777, led by Generals Benedict Arnold and Benjamin Gold Silliman, several hundred Colonial militiamen battled for four days with British regulars, led by British General William Tryon (of Fort Tryon Park fame) as they retreated from Danbury towards the Sound and the safety of the British Navy. In Ridgefield, they encountered a hastily erected barricade across the north end of the main street. The Americans delayed the Brits, but American Major General David Wooster was mortally wounded, and General Arnold was nearly captured after his horse was struck by nine bullets and killed.
The British continued south through Wilton on Ridgefield Road, along their march they carried off cows, destroyed a large brass kettle, broke a large mirror, drained a hogshead of rum, and committed various other dastardly acts. Daniel Gregory’s aged mother at 11 Belden Hill Road shook a poker at them "to show them which side I am on."
They continued to advance against the Americans, destroyed 100 barrels of rum, several chests of arms, many cartridges (bullets and power wrapped in paper), and 300 tents. They started to raid Samuel Belden’s store, but stopped when they discovered he was a Loyalist!
Before the British could reach the Sound, General Tryon could see that Benedict Arnold had outflanked him and was laying in wait at the only bridge across the Saugatuck. Tryon barely escaped, by fording the Saugatuck to reach his ships, with the Americans trying to cut him off but failing.
The action was considered an American victory, and Arnold was promoted to major general for his exploits. However, he was not given the seniority that he felt he deserved by the Congress, and it was not long after that Benedict Arnold entered into negotiations with the British and turned traitor to his country.
Download three newsletters…

Website Copy

We recorded the doctors at New Milford Medical Group to collect their own thoughts about their practice. Then we reworked their words to make the copy of the website come alive, including some copy which is on the site, but doesn't appear to humans, only to bots

At New Milford Medical Group
We're focused on building relationships. If you develop a comfortable relationship with your physician, with an open dialogue about what is bothering you, we can develop a plan based on truly caring for your needs.
We treat the the whole patient. There is a humility to the physicians in this practice that is unique, the patients are cared for very well, and it is more of a family feel than a lot of other excellent practices.
We also have a lot of fun in this office!
We believe the old saying, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure", today we just call it preventive medicine! But in order to be up to date with screenings and interventions it is important to see us for regular visits.
Visit the site…

Print Copy

Print is that beautiful dynamic where the ying and the yang of words and images can seamlessly coexist.

Brochure Copy

When you create ads for your product, you spend months crafting the strategy, getting it approved, briefing the teams, shepherding the process, watching while creative is crafted that you are proud of, that your boss likes, and that works. Why would you start over now, when you need to get on the web ? Avenue-e is a part of your process. We understand the work you do, and we know exactly what you have had to go through. But, we also know that what you have created for TV or print won't work as a website, because we know our business and our audience. At Avenue-e we use your creative to craft the look and feel of the web communications for your brand. Our team takes over where our expertise does,

Download the PDF

Travel Copy

Living in Norwalk
The Sound Veteran’s Memorial Park and Marina, with its boardwalk overlooking scenic Norwalk harbor, includes a boat launch, playground, baseball diamonds, basketball courts, soccer and football fields, and trails for jogging and bike riding.
Arts, History & Stingrays SoNo Arts Celebration pays tribute to the vibrant local art scene. The Maritime Aquarium has a stingray petting zoo. Sheffield Island lighthouse with its cookout spaces and beaches is just a ferry ride away. Dolce features beautiful grounds where you can feed the ducks, and SoNo Baking Company has the best whole wheat croissants you’ll ever taste!
Oysters Everywhere! The Norwalk Oyster Festival is a three-day party for 90,000 where you dig into some excellent seafood and celebrate the history of the oyster industry in Norwalk while enjoying food, vendors, carnival rides, and entertainment.

Download the PDF