As an annual tradition on Veteran’s day, ceremonies and celebrations take place across the country recognizing and thanking Veterans and their families for their service and their sacrifices.  This weekend members of the Marx Layne team joined our nation in a show of admiration and respect for the brave and dedicated Veterans of the United States of America armed forces.

Fighting for freedom, protecting our nation and responding to disaster are only three of the many tasks within the job description of those who unselfishly serve in the military. Because of these courageous men and women, Americans are privileged with the rights to vote, voice their opinion and work to achieve the ‘American dream’.

We at Marx Layne are thankful to our nation’s Veterans for providing us the ability to come to work, raise our families and contribute to our communities. As we approach the holiday season and the new year we will continue to keep the Veterans and their families in our hearts.

By Michael Layne

We’re taking positive steps at Marx Layne to encourage our employees to make healthy choices throughout the workday. We know healthy team members are happy and productive.

We admit we’re a little self-serving, however, since our agency reaps countless benefits such as fewer sick days and lower health care costs when employees exercise, eat right and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

Still, like all employers, we’re grappling with skyrocketing costs for medical, dental and vision coverage and looking for affordable, but comprehensive, options that serve the needs of our people.

Since our inception, we’ve absorbed health care cost increases for our employees or identified alternative solutions to circumvent spikes in pricing. But it’s getting tough.

Two years ago, our insurance provider raised our premium by 20 percent. To avoid this unnecessary hike, we switched providers. Now, our current carrier is demanding a 21 percent increase for the new contract year, beginning Aug. 1. We didn’t take the news lying down, or sitting down. We chose a new plan that emphasizes wellness and maintains costs. Our new insurance program will require everyone to get a complete physical during the initial transition phase and make lifestyle changes based on their doctor’s recommendation to reduce the risk of preventable diseases.

In the meantime, we’re doing our part at Marx Layne by creating workplace opportunities for our employees to get up, get fit and take responsibility for their own health.

Earlier this year, David Stoyka, PR practitioner extraordinaire and budding fitness guru, suggested that we replace desk chairs with inflatable fitness balls to improve spinal health and minimize the damage caused by prolonged sitting. It took a minute to get accustomed to the bouncy seats, but everyone appears to be walking taller.

Last week, Pat Stoll, head of all things necessary to run the place, installed a toaster oven and single-burner hot plate in the kitchen. The new equipment is expected to save energy and spare soups and pastas from electromagnetic-radiation in the microwave. Plus, we traded bagels for organic fruit and purified water, available every morning for breakfast or a midday snack.

And some of our amateur cyclists bring their bikes to work for lunchtime rides – an encouraging sign, but they’ve established fitness goals that would make Jack LaLanne quake with anxiety.

Yet, none of these changes would amount to much if we didn’t recognize our employees’ need for a calm and welcoming environment, so we’ve assigned temperament control to our four-legged workers. Grand, a cool and collected golden retriever, and Rosie, a bichon frisé puppy with a curious nose, show up daily for work and keep the mood light. Our employees may appreciate their 401(k), but they love our K-9s.

Finally, we’ve launched this blog to chronicle these new experiences. Join us online at www.marxlayne.com/blog as we embark on our journey to wellness, managing our waistlines and our health care costs.

The place has gone to the dogs, but we’re on the ball.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

When I think of living in the clouds, several different movies come to mind.  Of course, there’s the skyway in Back to the Future Part II, then there’s the Cloud City in Star Wars, and the freaky planet in Avatar.

Of course, you could also say that everyone is living in their personal cloud right now.  That was part of David Leider’s message about The Evolution of Digital Media.  Leider is the CEO of Gas Station TV.  Everybody is using digital devices and each of them have a different cache of inputs.

“We are wired to be wired,” Leider said. Think about all of the different ways that we gather information.  Leider listed several of things for himself, but his inputs are different than mine and ours are different from yours.  If you’re in the content industry though, you have to compete with a growing field of competitors for a shrinking audience of viewers. Leider cited statistics that in the distant past you could run one ad on one of the TV networks and reach 80 percent of the population.  To achieve that same feat now, you’d have to advertise on 100 channels.

Because everyone has so many options at their disposal it’s important to reach people where they’re at.  You have to seek out and find an audience and make them love you. That’s a very important distinction too, because people will find a reason to be offended. Leider said, “you have to be bold and you have to push and really focus to get people to love you.”

We don’t need a time machine to live in the clouds, people already are.  We need to focus on avoiding the traps, and being bold and aggressive to reach our targeted audience.

This is the fifth of a seven-part series taking a look at how we can be a force of change for those around us.

Introduction: Back to the Future Midwest

Part 1: We don’t need a time machine…to predict the weather.

Part 2: We don’t need a time machine…to stay relevant.

Part 3: We don’t need a time machine…to know where we’re going.

Part 4: We don’t need a time machine…to tell the future.

Part 5: We don’t need a time machine…to live in the clouds.

Part 6: We don’t need a time machine…to bridge the digital divide.

Part 7: We don’t need a time machine…to drive the conversation.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

At Marx Layne, we know the perceptions of Detroit are muddled.  We know this city still has what it takes to be the best.

From a public relations perspective, it’s good to see some positive light being shed on the city in a series from Palladium Boots called Detroit Lives.

“Once the fourth-largest metropolis in America—some have called it the Death of the American Dream. Today, the young people of the Motor City are making it their own DIY paradise where rules are second to passion and creativity. They are creating the new Detroit on their own terms, against real adversity. We put our boots on and went exploring.”

Watch the story below, embedded in three parts.  There’s even a bonus feature embedded.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Bonus feature

Recently, Marx Layne and our client Walmart teamed up to provide more than 50 personal hygiene kits to the Neighborhood Service Organization (NSO) Tumaini Center in Detroit. We also provided personal care items and new clothing for this homeless shelter that provides warmth and a place to stay on cold winter nights.

We would like to thank Lindsay Huddleston, Chris Coffman and the Taylor Walmart for their generosity and assisting us with this donation.

Announced at CES on Wednesday, January 6, 2011:

Marx Layne was at the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas today. Tablet PCs, 3D televisions, cloud computing and the environment were top of mind for many participating companies.

If you weren’t able to make the largest technology trade show, take a peek at what Monster Cable and Samsung had to say at CES.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

Google has reaffirmed its commitment to its online community by announcing that it will step up its efforts to minimize copyright infringements.

The announcement was summarized on Google’s Public Policy Blog:

http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2010/12/making-copyright-work-better-online.html

By Alan Upchurch

Recently, I watched with pride as my youngest child walked across the stage and received his high school diploma.  It was a special moment for me, my wife Patty, and our son Trevor.  Trevor was diagnosed with autism when he was about 4 years old.  There have been many obstacles along the way, but Trevor has defeated most of them and grown into a bright, engaging, happy young man.

On graduation day, I also thought a lot about his future.  Trevor always tells his Mom and I that he loves the state of Michigan and can’t imagine leaving.  But as Michigan struggles to rebound from years of economic calamity, I wonder if his best opportunities will come elsewhere.  My eldest daughter has already left the state.  She’s in California. Many of her friends are gone, too.  They’re working in Chicago, Atlanta and other cities around the country.  In the last 10 years Michigan has lost nearly 800,000 private sector jobs.  What frightens and angers me is the lack of outrage, and the lack of urgency from government and business leaders throughout the state. They talk a good game. But where is the action.  The candidates for governor are as unimpressive as I have seen in the past 30 years.  Have you heard any of your friends or neighbors talking about the great ideas and leadership skills of these candidates?   People are apathetic and one of the big reasons for their indifference is the uninspiring candidates.

We need a Marshall Plan, which helped rebuild war-torn Europe, because Michigan is losing one battle after another in this economic war.   And now we are losing our children to other states that are better prepared and, apparently, more willing to fight for their economic future.   Cool cities?  How about a cool jobs creation plan that will give young people like my son a reasonable chance at economic success in a state he loves so much.

By Michael Layne

On Sunday May 16, Rima Fakih, a 24-year old Lebanese immigrant from Dearborn became the newest Miss USA and a beacon of hope for much of southeastern Michigan as well as immigrants across the country.

Fakih’s family is Shiite from a village in the south of Lebanon called Srifa. She came to the United States with her parents in 1993.

Her family eventually settled in Dearborn, Michigan, where Fakih was able to work towards her goal of becoming Miss USA. Dearborn, located in southeastern Michigan, is one of the cities in this area of the United States with the highest concentration of Arab Americans. 25% of the people living in Dearborn are immigrants, many from Arab countries. As a result, Arab cuture has made an impact throughout Metro Detroit. Hummus dip and pita bread is just as commonplace as potato chips and sour cream dip.

In today’s world, where it seems that decades of progress may go unnoticed with movements such as the recent immigration laws in Arizona, Fakih is a reminder of the cultural diversity values that many in this country hold so dear. While many Arab people in the United States face discrimination based upon ethnic ties, Fakih breaks the bonds of stereotypes associated with Arab and Muslim women.

During a time of uncertainty and unrest in the state of Michigan surrounding state budget cuts and a high unemployment rate, Fakih is able to remind the country as a whole that the heart of Michigan is still beating fast.

Beauty knows no cultural bounds.  Fakih is a testament to the fact that our cultural differences should be celebrated. She represents a new generation in which ethnic ties and racial prejudices will be broken down by perseverance, and by people willing to make a difference.