Q&A with Ron Greenstone and Chris Nehlen By: Claude Solnik Long Island Business

LONG ISLAND, N.Y. - Feb. 2, 2016 - PRLog -- You two worked together in the past. How did you decide to team again? Greenstone: We met a few months ago at a diner and started talking about what we could do together. We worked together years ago. Chris was my creative director at Greenstone Rabasca and then he left to start his own shop. We wanted to do something different for Long Island companies using our “MKT2” – marketing to the power of two – quick marketing approach. The idea is to go to a client and quickly up their sales.

What yields fast results? Greenstone: The right message. Companies usually don’t have a strong benefit message and are using the same one they had for years. It’s been working, but not great. Companies get lost in day-to-day business. We take them back to the day before they started, when they knew exactly what they wanted to do and how they were going to do it. They knew what their product or service did better, their price, and how they were going to beat the competition. They had the enthusiasm and energy to be successful. The following day they got into business and business got into them.

Isn’t marketing like wine – it takes time? How can you get things done quickly? Greenstone:
After doing it for companies ranging from startups to large corporations for so many years, we can go into a client, talk to them for a short period of time. Then we come back with a unique and beneficial message. Determine the most desired target audience and execute the most effective and economical way to reach them. Years ago, we worked with clients for 15, 20 years. That’s not what we want to do now. We want to accelerate the process successfully in six months to one year.

What are the most common marketing mistakes? Greenstone: Wrong message, wrong target audience, poor execution. If you wanted to reach people 45 to 60 you shouldn’t go into Rolling Stone magazine. That’s a mistake. Nehlen: A lot of people think too small. You have to think much bigger to get your voice heard.

Did you compete with New York City agencies for big clients? Greenstone: Nikon went to several agencies in the city to solicit their account. They felt obligated to go to one agency out here. We did a great presentation without spending a lot of direct time. Today our model is to spend a short, but direct time with the client. Come up with the most beneficial message to the target audience and formulate a tactical plan in less than two weeks followed by a strategic plan shortly thereafter. Nehlen: North Shore-LIJ wanted a new agency. They called in Manhattan agencies. We managed to fight our way into the pitch. Everyone in Manhattan said the first thing they had to do was change their tagline, which was “setting new standards in healthcare.” We said the tagline is fine. You need a marketing program that will put you on the map. We won the business and created great print, radio and TV for over six years.

What are some things you’re proud of as a marketer? Greenstone: In my previous agency, we grew TwinLabs from a few hundred thousand dollars to $375 million, Standard Microsystems from $8 million to $400 million. We helped grow these companies as partners. We were the agency for TwinLabs for 12 years. For Standard Microsystems, we were the agency for 22 years. For Avis, we were the agency for 25 years. For Astoria Federal Savings, we were the agency for 18 years. We helped them grow from $900 million in assets to $22 billion.

Can you discuss a print campaign? Nehlen: We did the advertising for Esquire magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, Newsday, a lot of it in print. We launched Worth magazine, which is still one of the top wealth and investment magazines on the market. We launched that with print and radio and won the Silver Microphone award for the best radio campaign in the United States.

Any successful slogans that stand out? Greenstone: We did the work for Hofstra. We made the ads with a lot of white space and a powerful message, a single photo and a small amount of copy. We promoted the tagline, “We teach success.” And Hofstra leaped to the leading university in this area

Can you talk about a recent campaign? Nehlen: We spoke with the Suffolk Cooperative Library System. We found out there were so many wonderful things the library had to offer for free. Download, stream books, movies, music. Free passes to New York museums. You could take free courses, learn languages online, take free yoga and fitness classes. They weren’t getting that message out to the millions of people on Long Island. We talked to 100 people and they would say “I didn’t know I could get that at no charge from my local library.” We put together a campaign to launch the concept of, “I didn’t know that.”

What’s your message as marketers? Greenstone: What is our message? Quicker results. If you want to change what you’re doing, to have a positive effect quickly with marketing, sales, come to us.

www.greenstonenehlen.com