Sabine de Witte and Patrick Mulder are curators of cool. Splitting time between Amsterdam, Barcelona, and other hip cities around the world, they represent the quickly growing number of young, creative “mobile citizens” made famous by citizenM. Although our schedules caused us to miss previously scheduled meetings in Barcelona, Amsterdam, and New York’s JFK airport, the fourth try was a success, and I finally caught up with them at New York’s Ace Hotel to discuss trends in digital content creation and curation.

We began talking about the citizenM digital magazine, one of the projects Sabine is involved in…..

Curating lifestyle content with a digital magazine

“Instead of having a blog, we created a digital magazine to share brand information and curate lifestyle content for everyone,” citizenM’s digital strategist Diego Sartori told me. CitizenMag uses themed issues to connect with the brand’s core audience.

“It had to be something different – something that could be read on your mobile phone while waiting,” Sabine said. In just a few issues, the publication has covered topics such “Beautiful” “Tasty” and “Social”. Content ranges from short-form interviews to video clips, and is very visual.

Engaging top talent

When the magazine first launched, it was easy to gather content from writers and media producers. Everyone wanted to contribute.

But the dynamics of encouraging participation always changes with time: “When it’s not brand new, you need to get creative.” With a rapidly growing subscription base, magazine contributors now receive significant visibility for their businesses and projects.

Once the theme of the issue is established, Sabine approaches writers she feels would be a good fit for the issue. Tapping into her network is important for finding the best talent, and she also encourages citizenM ambassadors to reach out to their own networks to find top talent.

Content that connects

Deep articles that go beyond “where to go, what to buy” seem to resonate best with the readers of CitizenMag. An example was an in-depth interview with the CTO of Amazon, where he shared his experience in developing the internet.

There’s a strong interest in hearing about trends – and the people who are shaping those trends. “Our readers loved our ‘day in the life’ profile story of a very famous 23-year-old fashion blogger in the Netherlands. People want to hear about more than the superficial: they want to know about other people’s lives.”

Detailed articles work well for the magazine, but for other digital publishing projects, spontaneous content seems to work really well. Patrick shot a quick video of the 5th Avenue Apple store re-opening with his iPhone, uploaded it to YouTube – and it’s received over 115,000 views to date via Huffington Post and other sites. “Sometimes something you’ve worked on for weeks will get less attention than a quick photo or video. It seems people often don’t like the over-planned content as much as the spontaneous.”

“You must live the lifestyle”

How do you identify the best topics to work on, pieces of content to use, and people to engage for your publication?

“If you’re living the lifestyle, you’ll know what type of content will connect with your audience, because it connects with you.”

Sabine began working with citizenM because she was “living the lifestyle.” This is critical if you want to create truly amazing and engaging content. Hire people living the lifestyle.

Format preferences are changing

Preferences for content consumption have changed dramatically over the past few years. With multiple screens and an exploding diversity of distribution formats, selecting the right way to display content has become crucial for maximizing the visibility of that content.

“This era of ‘there’s an app for that’ will become history,” said Patrick. “Content inside apps is not searchable and visible elsewhere on the web.” Apple and others are developing one ‘umbrella’ app to include all types of magazines and digital content, instead of every publication having an app on its own.

Zite and Flipboard are other services that provide great user experience. Distribution and coverage here will become increasingly important.

“You must promote your content”

The biggest mistake people make when publishing online? Failing to promote it.

“You can have very good content, but you still need to sell it. You must promote your content to attract readers.”

Thanks, Sabine and Patrick!

As I’ve done the past two years, I attended EyeForTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit North America event last week – held this year in Las Vegas. It was encouraging to see the best practices we identified earlier holding up with time: a focus on service, creativity, and guest-created content. Corporate executives may always remain hesitant to reveal everything in their public presentations , but one-on-one conversations are often very insightful.

A good example of this was the ecommerce manager who shared an anecdote with me over lunch: A guest had seen photos of chocolate-covered strawberries on the resort’s restaurant website – but was told they were out of stock when she arrived. The guest sent out a tweet expressing her disappointment. This manager quickly caught this message, and immediately called the hotel’s GM – asking him to send up a plate of chocolate strawberries to the guests’ room along with a note of apology. This gesture immediately won back the loyalty of the customer, and they ended up purchasing one of the timeshare units on property. Anecdotes like this demonstrate the value of monitoring the social web and responding quickly with memorable service.

I like to see hoteliers opening up and talking about what’s working and what’s not working through stories like that.

On to the top 10 list of ideas I gathered from presentations….

Top 10 Insights I Heard at EyeforTravel North America 2011

1. Location based services with time-sensitive offers will play a big role in revenue management in the future. Technology is increasingly allowing us to deliver content in context, and this additional relevancy increases sales.
2. The battle for attention is becoming more intense than ever. In the case of mobile, you battle for space on the deck of apps. (The average program gets deleted in 30 days.)
3. Location based service Gowalla is becoming a “social atlas” and travel guidebook that is written by your friends. (Andy Ellwood)
4. “Stay focused. Find 2-3 good ideas and implement them well.” – Rohit Dhawan, Facebook
5. Use Facebook’s API to plug into their social graph. TripAdvisor found users connected with Facebook were twice as engaged with their website.
6. Travelers today use social media to get the real, authentic, unvarnished, unedited preview of what to expect. (Barbara Messing, TripAdvisor)
7. In this Review Economy, the credibility and authority of the reviewer is becoming increasingly important. For example, TripAdvisor is placing more weight on the profile and record of the reviewer.
8. Personalize content on your site to increase conversion rates. Attributes to use include the referring site, keyword search phrase, date, geo-location, and visit recency.
9. People are far more trusting online than in real life, said Leonard Brody. This means they will likely share much more content online. Are you listening?
10. Interesting case study from John Peters on the power of partnerships. Rand McNally created substantial amounts of online buzz for their Best of the Road campaign created through joint ventures with Saab, Country Inn & Suites and USA Today. What partners could you be working with?

What were your favorite ideas from EyeForTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit?

Note: You can see more top tweets from this event on the ReviewPro blog….

As a die-hard music aficionado, wannabe DJ, and devoted fan of chillout music, probably the hardest part opening my hotel will be creating the playlist.

That’s why when I heard about Ambiance Radio – a company co-founded by Bradley Newberger that turns background music into a science – I knew I had to learn more. His claim?

“It doesn’t matter whether you personally like the music or not”

“We’re building a 21-st century solution for background music. The fundamental way the industry thinks about music is wrong – it’s too often based on personal tastes. Personal tastes are so subjective. When you play to what the manager thinks guests should hear, the result is rarely what it could be.”

Bradley’s story begins when he was a senior student at Cornell University, working as a new manager for Taverna Banfi – the restaurant attached to the Statler Hotel (Cornell’s teaching laboratory for the hotel school). A few years ago, they completely renovated the restaurant to feel like a Tuscan-style bistro, and it looked fantastic. But the music was left untouched: a 5-disc CD changer played random tracks from Italian opera CDs. Consistently, the comment cards showed earned lower scores than any other element of the customer experience. So when Bradley became a manager, one of the first tasks was to fix the music.

He looked at the options that were available. Everyone’s first reaction is to program an iPod themselves, but this takes a really long time to do. Plus, it gets repetitive if this list never changes. A few high-end boutique firms specialize in creating playlists that reflect the personality of the hotel, but their approach is still based on personal tastes and preferences. They ask “What do you want the room to sound like or feel like,” and then a DJ will create a playlist based on these preferences.

This started Bradley on a quest to find more a more objective way to program music, which a couple of years later became Ambiance Radio.

Music can achieve business objectives

“In developing our company, we applied the findings of decades of academic and scientific research into how music affects the way people feel and behave.  Time after time, researchers found that music has a profound business effect on the environment. The right music could increase F&B revenues from 5 to 20%, depending on the time of day and music tested. In a lobby, music can make waiting in line feel shorter than it actual is – or reduce the time is seems it takes to retrieve your car at the valet. Music triggers a chemical reaction in the brain that changes perceptions.

Perhaps as importantly, music plays a big role in employee performance. The brain gets most engaged when it hears different types of music back to back. Productivity can be increased with the right mix.

The missing element until now: Technology

Technology is a key part of the Ambiance Radio platform. “We looked at what types of music achieved desired effects in the hospitality environment. We developed an algorithm that factors in who is in the room, what are the psychographics – and what the business objectives are there and created a series of proprietary processes that can deliver the Right Music for each venue, varying it day by day, hour by hour as needed. We capture data for each property in an interview and then the technology take over from there. Our system creates and delivers customized feeds for each site and updates them hourly.”

Surprising opportunity: Limited service hotels

I love talking about experience design and experience marketing on this blog, but sometimes get pushback from the owners of limited service hotels. “We can’t afford to spend money on things like that!” But as I wrote in Why Hotel Design Directly Affects The Prices You Can Charge, design and experience elements are what separates a $49 hotel room from an $800 room. Music is another key element in experience design.What’s interesting is that Bradley has seen a lot of initial traction with limited service hotels already.

“Music is something you can instantly put in and change the feel of the room. People walk in and when you see their expressions, you know they had a different experience.” Many limited service hotels play TVs in the lobby – but TVs are a poor way to introduce your guests to the hotel. “Guests come from all walks of life, and when you think about the political environment of today (for example), so-called centrist news organizations can lean one way or the other, and this can cause people to be emotionally involved. Changing the soundscape to music can affect a profound change on the environment.”

“There’s a profound difference between the music you play in the foreground in your home or office and the music that is best to play in the background of a hotel. In the foreground, you’re thinking about whether you like the song. But for background music, it’s not about what you personally like. It’s about what experience is best for the demographics and business objective you want to achieve in the space.”

“Music is for the guests in the room, and not your personal enjoyment.”

–

Thanks, Bradley! For more information, visit AmbianceRadio.com

[Update: August 30, 2011] After receiving dozens of nominations, our list of finalists is below. Vote for your favorite now:

For more details and the full contest, read this article on the Simpliflying website.

One representative from the Top 3 most voted in each category will get a free pass to attend the EyeforTravel Online Marketing and Social Media Summit on October 10 in Amsterdam. The winners will be announced at this event.

Adele Gutman of HK Hotels told the story of how she obtained what other marketing executives only dream about – putting all four of her properties in the top four positions of TripAdvisor’s New York hotel ranking. By obsessively focusing on creating a remarkable experience for guests – and viewing service as marketing – she now earns more than 50% of revenue through direct website bookings. A few good quotes:

• “Reputation creates demand.”
• “Everything you do is reputation management: from hiring and training staff to the type of linens you order for the guest rooms.”
• “Imagine the reviews you want, and then become the hotel that inspires them.”

Brian Payea of TripAdvisor shared some fascinating data related to how consumers view management responses to reviews. According to Forrester research commissioned by TripAdvisor:

• When considering two properties, travelers say the presence of management responses would sway 68% in their favor
• 79% say a management response to a bad review reassures them
• 78% say a management response to a good review makes them think highly of the hotel

And then I presented some ideas on how to generate more direct bookings with reviews and user-generated content:

For a more complete summary of the event, keep your eyes on the Tnooz and ReviewPro blogs….

Recently, The Ritz-Carlton introduced World Concierge on Foursquare as a way to extend their brand to a mobile audience. I talked with The Ritz-Carlton team to understand the purpose and process involved.

What The Ritz-Carlton was trying to accomplish

The goal was to accomplish what The Ritz-Carlton staff does on a daily basis with new audiences: To further connecting with existing guests and new consumers. The concierge team at Ritz-Carlton properties are some of the best in the business, bringing exceptional knowledge of their local areas. Given the adoption rate and availability of location-based services, they saw this channel as the perfect way to share their internal knowledge with the world. Travelers would be able to “carry the collective wisdom of The Ritz-Carlton staff in their pockets.”

What they built

Their project was a simple concept: taking internal knowledge and making available it outside four walls of hotels. The team collected the knowledge and the tips from concierges at each property, and collected it all into central account. The goal of building this database was not to be a one-time effort, but rather an ongoing process. The campaign launched with specific tips, but each week new tips are added.

They got the whole team to contribute through close collaboration between the agency, brand, and staff at each property. There are 76 Ritz-Carlton locations around the world – representing a huge infrastructure of knowledge – so it was just a matter of collecting this and putting it online. Acquire raw knowledge and putting appropriate form for the channel (a location-based service in this case).

Travelers have two ways to access this information. The first is to follow The Ritz-Carlton on Foursquare, where you can see every new tip that is published. The other way is through traditional check ins. The program was designed to not be exclusively about The Ritz-Carlton, and you don’t have to be a guest to engage with the brand. For example, if you are at the Red Square in Moscow, you might see tip or something special about the neighborhood. Promotional messages are not the priority.

Initial results

The Ritz-Carlton initially had 300 Foursquare followers on the launch of this project, but now this number has risen to over 1,300. Initial press reception from social media world was impressive: Mashable, Gadling, and many other publications covered the launch. There was a strong response from travel professionals massive response on Twitter.

The Ritz-Carlton team is still analyzing internal performance numbers, and it will be interesting to see the full business impact over months ahead. As more and more people use location-based services as they travel, this could be a strong opportunity to connect with travelers, raise brand awareness, and drive revenue growth.

In the past 2 years, Indigo Pearl Resort witnessed a clear shift in its market mix: Growing from a heavy reliance on tour operators to direct bookings and online channels. Micheal Nurbatlain and the team at Indigo Pearl led this growth by developing a presence in a variety of channels, with Facebook emerging as one of the biggest successes. In just one year, Michael grew the resort’s Facebook fan page to more than 8,000 followers. This case study shares the lessons learned from this process.

First, a little background

The Indigo Pearl Resort is an independent, luxury design property located in Phuket, Thailand.  Michael joined the resort as a sales manager, but this role quickly expanded to include managing digital marketing, e-commerce, and social media.

While Michael is running a number of interesting projects right now, we decided to focus on his work in Facebook for this case study . “While Twitter is beginning to gain popularity here in Asia, Facebook has nearly complete market adoption with our customers.”

Indigo Pearl Resort’s Facebook page

The Facebook page for Indigo Pearl Resort uses a mix of custom design and standard pages. Note the little details in how they engage with their fans:

But what really makes their Facebook presence stand out is their approach to special promotions.

Facebook contests: the key to growth

“Last September we wanted to give something to our Facebook fans,” said Michael. At the time, they had about 3,000 fans, and decided to create a photo contest around what symbolizes Indigo Pearl.

Fans were asked to post pictures, and then vote on their favorites. But Facebook contacted them, saying the contest setup violated terms and conditions. This forced them to setup an independent voting scheme allowing their fans to vote, which worked even better in the end. The contest generated great interaction among existing fans, strengthening their online community. Additionally, the contest generated a couple of hundred of new fans – which was a considered a great success at that time.

Latest Facebook contest: Ultimate holiday package

This year’s idea was to setup a new system. Rather than just asking fans to submit pictures, they wanted to add another layer of involvement. Michael and Indigo Pearl Resort asked fans to design their dream 3-day holiday package. What would they like to do in Puket? They were not very strict with the guidelines, so that if someone wrote some poetry about the perfect holiday – for example – it was still accepted as an entry.

“I imagined Mercedes running a promotion around designing your dream car. Although I’m a big fan of cars, I wouldn’t know what horsepower to put in or the details of the engine. While our guests travel a lot, they are not hoteliers, so it would be somewhat difficult for them to come up with a breakdown package of all the amenities – so we left it very open.”

They didn’t buy any Facebook ads or spend much time promoting the contest. Micheal worked a bit with the local media to get mentioned on their websites, and sent out some tweets to promote it. But no other PR or press releases – everything was done though Facebook.

“Within days we had 10-15 entries, and then we started to get a snowball effect from there.” They asked fans to send in their pictures, screened them, and placed the photos in the album called “Ultimate Family Package.” Once the photo was approved, the contest participants could ask their friends and family to vote on their entry.

This is what created a viral marketing effect for the resort – one photo had over 1,000 likes. “It surpassed our expectations and we could hardly believe it!”

Lessons learned from the contests

It’s all about planning. “Have a solid plan when it comes to Facebook, and create an editorial calendar. Be very strict about creating and following deadlines.” Too many people just wake up in the morning and try to create content on the fly.  “If there is no solid plan for 3-12 months, it’s difficult to consistently deliver good quality results.”

Always respond and interact with your online community. Don’t get arrogant and forget to thank fans. “I think you should thank every single person who contributes to your Facebook page or Twitter account – whether than have 5 friends or 5,000 followers. Each fan is an immense asset to your community.”

Have more than one prize. Last year the prize was a 7-night stay in a suite. “But if one guy in the contest has 1,000 votes for his entry, other people could be discouraged from participating.” This year, having two good prizes encouraged more people to enter the contest.

An “economy of photos” and additional thoughts

• Photos are the lifeblood of Facebook. As Guy Kawasaki says, Facebook is a pictures economy. “Often I just put a picture of our sunset or property, and it gets me a few hundred Likes and 30-50 comments. A few times I’ve spent hours creating a huge post, and it doesn’t get nearly the same levels of feedback as that beach picture gets. Sometimes the easy route gets the best results.”
• Avoid constantly bombarding fans with Facebook promotions. For every 20 posts, put only one promotional post if you must include sales messages.
• “Instead, develop the art of soft selling. Create and share images, experiences, smells, and tastes that represent your brand.”
• Act as an online concierge on Facebook and Twitter, helping people by providing answers and suggestions.
• Try to reflect the hotel’s personality without being too flamboyant. There has to be class, but presented in a very accessible way.

Thank you, Michael!

Become a fan of Indigo Pearl Resort on Facebook, follow @_IndigoPearl_ on Twitter, and connect with Michael on LinkedIn here.

This week, Josiah and I discussed the best ways to promote a hotel’s eco-initiatives and exceptional service with Chris Syvertsen, General Manager of Mosaic House – the first hotel in the Czech Republic to use 100% renewable electricity and 100% biogas. Planning an eco-overhaul of your own? Focus on these eight strategies:

1. Skeptics are (rightfully) wary of properties that appear to be “greenwashing.” Stick to specific, meaningful improvements. Guests can tell the difference.

Chris: For Mosaic House, it’s relatively easy to promote our property authentically. The eco-initiatives we have incorporated are industry-leading and complex, making it easy to distinguish our efforts from those who have merely “greenwashed.”

We have a sophisticated water recycling system with heat recuperation, which is only the second of its kind in the world. This system recycles all the waste (or grey) water from showers and sinks using an eco-friendly bacterial filtration process, and then sends the recycled water to all of the toilets in the building.

The water savings is tremendous. The system simultaneously recaptures the heat energy from the warm waste water, and then uses it to pre-warm the fresh water used for showering. The heating of the fresh shower water is also aided by the solar panels on the roof of Mosaic House.

2. Strive to become the best property in your niche.

Chris: We are the only hotel in the Czech Republic to utilize 100% renewable-source
electricity and 100% biogas, making our energy consumption 100% sustainable.

Further, we have a sophisticated climate management system which continuously
monitors and adjusts the temperature in every room, based on numerous variables, in
an effort to minimize energy use.

3. Don’t think you need to be “traditional” to appeal to a wide variety of guests.

Chris: We’ve never been the ‘traditional’ type. Between us, we find it a little boring. Mosaic House was dreamed to be as a unique environment in which all kinds of people from all different places, cultures, and backgrounds (a ‘mosaic’ of guests, if you will) could come together and share their stories and experiences.

Through offering affordable, design-conscious private and shared room accommodation, we’ve learned it is possible to appeal to a wide variety of guests.

It’s important to point out, however, that it’s a challenging concept to make work successfully. We work hard to create an environment which ensures all of our guest’s experiences are completely satisfactory.

4. Improve your online feedback and reputation by exceeding expectations.

Katie: So far, Mosaic House has earned 97% positive TripAdvisor feedback; it looks like you’re changing a lot of online reviewers’ preconceptions about hostels.

Chris: Our goal was to incorporate the positive elements of what defines a ‘traditional hostel’, namely a relaxed, friendly, and fun environment, while striping out the stereotypical
negative elements (i.e. stale design and cornflake breakfasts) and blending with four-star, environmentally-friendly offerings.

Based on guest feedback, so far the concept seems to be working. For example, in one recent TripAdvisor review, a guest mentioned ‘being pleasantly surprised at the quality of the accommodation and at the ambience’. Another guest review describes Mosaic House as having ‘a modern-yet-classic vibe that’s both hip and relaxed’.

In addition to the atmosphere and design, guests also comment positively on our service, international staff, green features, cleanliness, and breadth of offerings (such as the gourmet breakfast, Prague customized maps provided upon check-in, and daily entertainment at our own Belushi’s Bar & Restaurant).

5. Set the stage for storytelling and engage locals with in-house entertainment and social spaces.

Katie: You mentioned that Mosaic House likes to create experiences that inspire guests and staff to spread news and stories; could you share a couple examples of these stories?

Chris: Yes, we like stories… and providing a stage (figuratively and literally) for their creation. Not only was the space – which is 100% smoke-free – designed to bring guests together, but we also pay focus to our in-house entertainment. Karaoke nights, themed parties (such as Australia Day and St Patrick’s Day), as well as live music on our theatre stage and sports on the big screen, are on for guests (as well as Prague locals) almost any night of the week.

6. Tell stories with photos.

Chris: Take a gander at Mosaic House’s Facebook page to catch a ‘storybook’ glimpse of what’s ensued over the past year, including our Green Gala event early last month; we were celebrating the announcement of our newest green announcements: utilizing 100% green electricity, gas, and our new fully electric car.

7. Think long-term. It’ll take years of research and adaptation to fine-tune your ecological efforts.

Katie: Which of Mosaic’s features make the biggest environmental impact? Which do your guests most appreciate?

Chris: We’ve taken a big step, but we’re certainly not experts. While we do have projections as to the benefits, it will take years before we are able to truly realize the impact of our eco-initiatives. We’re reluctant to offer advice at this stage, except to recommend performing as much research and analysis as is feasible.

In general, guests really appreciate the overall initiative. They admire that we’ve taken such bold steps towards sustainability and actively work towards minimizing our impact on the environment.

They also appreciate the tangible concepts. For example, our electric car, which is plugged into the side of Mosaic House. The low-flow raindance showers are beloved, perhaps as they also have a bit of a luxurious feature.

8. Find creative ways to measure guest satisfaction for specific initiatives.

Chris: We’ve actually just begun a program which will help us measure guests’ true
appreciation. Because the additional cost of using 100% green electricity and gas is
fairly significant (roughly an additional 40,000 Euros annually), we are asking guests to
consider donating their 2 Euro key deposit towards helping Mosaic House to continue
to afford green energy.

Through measuring how much guests donate, we will get a more accurate picture of how willing people are to actively participate in our effort to make a difference. You might consider checking back with us in six months to see how well the program has performed.

Thank you Chris, and a special thanks to Mosaic House’ enthusiastic Experience Manager Shannon Maroney for reaching out to us!

Over the past month I’ve been working with Diego Sartori to understand how the strategy he helped build at citizenM Hotels helped them:

• Increase Facebook followers by over 400% in the past year
• Double Twitter followers in 3 months
• Reach the top of review site rankings like TripAdvisor

…among other accomplishments. In a new case study on the ReviewPro blog, you’ll read interesting insights, such as….

On the traveler of today

“The traveler of today travels in jeans, a cheap t-shirt, an expensive watch, drinks champagne, and takes public transport” – Michael Levie

On involving others in the content creation process

“We invite bloggers to our hotels that share the same lifestyle. And then we ask these people to share something that represents the lifestyle of our brand.”

On creative publishing

“Instead of having a blog, we created a digital magazine to share brand information and curate lifestyle content for everyone.”

On getting guests to share their experiences online

“People only share online if they have a terrible experience or if they have a very good experience. If it’s just ‘okay,’ they see no value in sharing with anyone. But our rooms are very innovative and our concept is very different. We try to always exceed expectations creating a WOW factor that gets guests talking.”

“You have to deliver good service and create clear expectations of what people can expect. This is what encourages more reviews. We get people saying, ‘I usually don’t write a review, but my stay at citizenM was so special because you did this specific thing that made me think WOW.’ So that’s why we always try to set the right expectations, deliver excellent service and then surprise guests with something unique.”

On setting expectations with guests

“We respond and say we created a specific hotel concept that is not for everyone. We are honest with what we offer. Other people will read about our amenities and say, ‘Wow – this is really special!’”

On why they chose ReviewPro

“I started looking for tools, and came across ReviewPro among others. I had demonstrations from many different tools, and ReviewPro was the one that fit our needs best: it is the most complete and has shown more reliability than the others. That’s the reason we started working with ReviewPro. It’s a great product that offers exactly what we need, and has some helpful features like social media tracking, task assignments, and so on.”

I’m fascinated by the citizenM brand on many levels – including their product development, design, service, and approach to social publishing. I think you’ll enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoyed putting it together.

[Download my full case study at the ReviewPro blog]