Herff Jones Scholastic eCommerce.

The new Herff Jones Scholastic eCommerce site is live.

Related: Herff Jones Scholastic Project Showcase Page.

Herff Jones Stitch in Google Play Store.

Herff Jones Stitch – Android Apps on Google Play.

Herff Jones Stitch in the iTunes App Store.

Herff Jones Stitch for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad in the iTunes App Store.

Related:

• Pearson Eduction – Sneak peek of the new aimsweb
• Project Showcase: Pearson Education aimsweb

Related:

• Pearson Education – aimsweb Overview Video
• Project Showcase: Pearson Education aimsweb

Herff Jones hired Carmel-based MediaSauce two years ago to help design, develop and market Stitch, a platform for schools to create an online version of their yearbook.

Stitch allows students to personalize an online yearbook throughout the school year, while giving the yearbook staff and faculty advisers the ability to enrich and control the content.

Kim Green, Columbus North High School’s journalism adviser, and one of the few nationally to have tested Stitch, calls it “a living, breathing tapestry during the school year that turns into a time capsule after each school year ends.”

“This is a huge leap forward for yearbooks, and there’s nothing else out there like it,” said Green, who’s been a high school yearbook adviser for 25 years. “It’s revolutionary. It’s everything I would have wanted if I would have invented it myself.”

In late February, Herff Jones began testing Stitch with 54 North American schools, including Columbus North, Greenwood and McCutcheon high schools in Indiana.

Herff Jones Senior Vice President Tom Tanton said initial feedback has been “overwhelmingly positive,” prompting Herff Jones and MediaSauce to prepare for a national rollout to thousands of schools in July.

“We think this platform is ground-breaking,” said MediaSauce CEO Bryan Gray. “We wanted to help create something that could be customized for each school, that is digital, yet has permanence.”

Yearbook savior?

Officials for Herff Jones, which was founded in 1920 and started selling yearbooks in the 1960s, are promoting Stitch as one of the biggest advancements ever in its yearbook business.

Many in the yearbook industry said the business needs a boost.

Yearbooks have basically been the same for decades, coming out once a year in a 100- to 200-page hardbound format. In recent years, some schools have offered a companion DVD.

But the economic downturn and the rise of the web have cut into sales of yearbooks, which typically cost students $50 to $60. Nationally, yearbook sales have been flat to slightly down the last five years, industry sources said.

With the evolution of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr and the proliferation of camera-equipped cell phones, which make texting photos easy, students no longer want to wait until the end of the school year to see photos and stories of school events, high school yearbook advisers said.

“There have been some worries about the future of yearbooks,” said Diana Hadley, executive director of the Indiana High School Press Association. “I think it’s significant that Herff Jones is first to market with something like this. If yearbooks are going to remain relevant, they’re going to have to have these types of bells and whistles.”

Herff Jones officials began seeking ways to “add value” to its traditional yearbook product in 2009, Tanton said. “We knew we needed to adjust given the changing dynamics of the marketplace.”

Herff Jones had worked with MediaSauce on previous projects and was impressed by the communications firm’s other work and client endorsements.

Facebook-plus 

Stitch has more functionality than a standard website. While it mirrors social networks, such as Facebook, it offers some significant differences.

It will handle significantly more photos than most social networks, allowing schools to upload far more than 10,000 photos per year. The MyStitch function allows students to create their own photo archives and collages.

The photo capabilities are just one of many features Stitch has. It also allows students to create “badges” identifying them by grade, the clubs they’re in, the sports they play, and other activities or interests. Each time the student uploads a photo or is in a photo, other students can pull up the student’s badge to learn more about them.

Photos and other information can be grouped by class, club, sport or other categories. Stitch also includes gaming, polling and other interactive features.

“You can engage entire groups, such as class officers or members of a class or club,” MediaSauce’s Gray said. “You can organize a senior class trip with Stitch.”

Access is restricted to the students and faculty of a particular school. And posts to the site go live only after sign-off by faculty or yearbook staff.

At the end of the school year, the site, hosted by Herff Jones, will be viewable by students who purchased a hard copy of the yearbook. But the site will be closed to further manipulation, thereby preserving it as a historical record of the year.

Selling more than yearbooks

Herff Jones isn’t going to charge for Stitch, but the company is counting on it to drive sales of a broad array of products.

Instead of charging schools to use the platform, it will give it away to schools that buy its yearbooks. Most schools in turn will let all their students use Stitch. But students who buy a hard copy of the annual yearbook may get to use more features and will be able to view all the images and stories and their own archived information after the school year has ended.

“Stitch is not a replacement for the yearbook. It’s a supplement—something that will be stitched together with the traditional yearbook to tell a more complete story of that year,” Tanton said. “We hope by making students’ high school experience richer and increasing their affinity for their school, that will in turn help sell more yearbooks.”

Herff Jones hopes to use Stitch to win the business of some of the more than 15,000 North American high schools not already buying its yearbooks.

There are six primary sellers of yearbooks in the United States and Canada. Herff Jones is one of the biggest suppliers, with more than a quarter of the market, according to industry sources.

The yearbook revenue stream represents one of the company’s largest—about 20 percent of its total business, behind only its cheerleader division, which sells uniforms and hosts competitions and camps.

Stitch could also serve to bolster some of Herff Jones’ other revenue streams. If the company gets its foot in the door with its new online yearbook, it can pitch its other products, which include high school class rings; sports awards; and graduation caps, gowns and announcements.

Simply increasing students’ affinity for their school, Tanton said, could boost the sale of products such as class rings and graduation accessories.

“This is the right thing to do, and it’s also good business,” Tanton said.

Stitch is a “high-six-figure project” for MediaSauce, Gray said, and represents the company’s second largest since its founding in 2002.

“We think this project will reach millions of students,” said Mike Rendel, co-creative director for MediaSauce. “This type of ground-breaking work is why we’re in the business.”•

Source: Herff Jones Goes Digital to Invigorate Yearbook Sales | 2012-05-19 | Indianapolis Business Journal | IBJ.com.

Bloomberg Sports today formally launched its third season of “Front Office”; the latest, most comprehensive and easy to use fantasy baseball analytic tools on the market.  The updated offerings are part of the continued enhancement and customer support that has helped grow “Front Office” into the top paid fantasy baseball tool available in the marketplace.

The updated suite of tools in “Front Office 2012” for the regular season will include opportunities for users to obtain instant updates via text and email on players on their roster through the new ALERTS! feature, and an additional feature designed to support leagues that are specific to the American and National League. Fans will also be able to obtain a free customized analysis of their fantasy team, showing how they compare to other teams on each scored stat, as well as receiving customized recommendations to improve their team. The product will retain all previously added features, including the ability to sync with the major hosting sites from Yahoo!, ESPN.com, and CBSSports.com as well as others, in order to easily tailor all recommendations to all fantasy team and player specifications.

“The latest additions to ‘Front Office’ were a direct result of the feedback we have received from our subscribers, and we are very excited to add these pieces to what is already the most comprehensive and robust product available in the marketplace,” said Bill Squadron, head of Bloomberg Sports. “Our tools are uniquely customized for each fantasy player’s actual roster and settings, providing the best projections and recommendations each day, from the draft through the entire season.”

The launch of the new tools will give fans ample time to review and make the best possible choices for their fantasy drafts, most of which will take place in March. In addition to the ability to sync with almost any league provider, “Front Office” offers a customized B-Rank that provides up-to-date lists for roster changes, free agent pickups and other decisions, as well as a customized dashboard which gives players all critical information about their team or teams in one easy to follow location.

All of Bloomberg’s fantasy tools are now available in PC, MAC or for most mobile devices, giving fans the ability to access the tools from wherever they are.  Bloomberg’s Fantasy Draft product was the leading seller among paid sports apps in the iTunes store for most of the 2011 season, further proof that the Bloomberg sports analytic tools are quickly becoming the fantasy tool of choice amongst both avid and casual players.

Strategic partners for Front Office 2012 include:  Yahoo Sports, CBSSports.com, USA Today, and SiriusXM as well as the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

Source: Bloomberg Sports Unveils Latest Additions To “Front Office 2012” Fantasy Baseball Tools | Going 9 Baseball.

By: SCOTT CACCIOLA

Before a Dec. 12 game against the Dolphins, Jets owner Woody Johnson stands in the owner’s suite at New Meadlowlands Stadium in front of his computer program that monitors in-game business.

On a recent trip to Rome, Jets owner Woody Johnson visited the Colosseum. It was neither his first visit nor his second, though he always considers the experience to be an education. As he said of the architects who designed the amphitheater two millennia ago, “They did some good stuff.”

Now that he has an ownership stake in New Meadowlands Stadium, Mr. Johnson has a vested interest in stadium planning. As he walked about the Colosseum, he found himself studying the entrances and exits, and he imagined epic bottlenecks.

“You can organize people when they’re coming in,” Mr. Johnson said before a recent home game. “But when they all decide to leave after the gladiators do their job, everyone’s in a big rush. No matter how many exits or escalators, it’s always been a problem.”

Mr. Johnson considers it his job to do what the ancient Romans could not, and his goal of eliminating crowd congestion after Jets’ victories—or (gasp!) losses—is just the start. To that end, Mr. Johnson hired Roundarch, a digital design agency, to conceptualize and construct a computer system that monitors virtually every single in-game business activity at the $1.6-billion stadium.

It is known among Jets officials as Mr. Johnson’s “Command Center,” and thousands of pieces of real-time data—everything from hot dog sales to bathroom lines—are available at his fingertips on a 42-inch touchscreen display that hangs in his owner’s suite. If this all sounds Big Brother-ish, well, it is—and Mr. Johnson and his staff are unapologetic. It is all designed to enhance the fan experience, they say. And if it helps the franchise become more profitable in the process, then the Jets will have no complaints.

“You can look at every piece of information in 360 degrees,” said Thad Sheely, the Jets’ executive vice president for finance and stadium development. “You’re able to see what’s happening as it happens.”

The program’s home screen is called “The Pocket,” and it has a four-panel layout that highlights separate categories: tickets, parking, merchandise and concessions. Tap on “Tickets,” and Mr. Johnson can see how many fans have entered the stadium, when they entered and which gates they used. Tap on “Concessions,” and Mr. Johnson can see gross sales and how that figure compares to previous games. Every ticket and parking pass is barcoded and scanned; every beer sale, processed and recorded. All that information is instantaneously uploaded to the Command Center.

It bears more than a vague resemblance to a video game, with its bold graphics and vivid colors, and Mr. Johnson was asked if he sometimes has fun just fiddling around with it. “Oh, totally,” he said.

He often extols the virtues of simplicity to his staff: If you can’t explain something in very basic terms, then you must not understand it well enough. So he asked Roundarch, which has offices in New York and Chicago, to create a system that was painless to operate and produced information that was easy to understand. By his own admission, Mr. Johnson is no tech geek. But also appears to be progressive.

“If you look at older stadiums and venues, these things were not run as well as traditional businesses,” said Geoff Cubitt, president and CTO of Roundarch. “But Woody is clearly a business guy, and he’s looking at it differently. He’s looking at it as the CEO of an organization.”

While the system operates on a macro level, Mr. Johnson—and the other executives and merchandisers who have access to it—can analyze metrics on a micro scale. The Command Center features a map of the stadium with icons that represent the exact locations of all 941 concession and merchandise outlets. Tap on any of them, and a cornucopia of data spills forth in surprisingly digestible form.

Say Mr. Johnson wants to monitor one of the merchandise booths up near Section 345. He can see gross sales for the afternoon, or for the past 10 minutes, or for a 15-minute period two hours ago—all thanks to a scrolling timeline. He can get an update on sales of merchandise subsets, such as jerseys, women’s apparel or hats. Then he can check out subsets of those subsets: How are Mark Sanchez jerseys selling at that booth? How does that total compare to last week’s game? To other booths on the same concourse? Are they running out of No. 6 jerseys? (Which, believe it or not, can happen if Mr. Sanchez is having a strong game.)

With that in mind, Roundarch has implemented an automated system that tracks inventory and sends alerts if any booths need to be restocked. Mr. Johnson also has access to live feeds of hundreds of security cameras, and the stadium is heat-mapped to monitor crowd flow. The whole idea is to take the guesswork out of game-day operations and reduce it to a futuristic science. “You can reduce lines and areas of congestion by re-routing people,” said David Vanslette, vice president of Roundarch. “And honestly, this is just the beginning. We’ll be able to tailor the experience for fans in ways that weren’t possible before.”

The idea for the Command Center was hatched in June, and Roundarch sliced the process into four stages. The first essentially entailed launching the system, which was completed before the start of the regular season. The Jets are now in the second stage, part of which involves making improvements based on the data the system collects.

The Jets already have made a couple of pregame modifications. First, Mr. Johnson said, opening the gates three hours prior to kickoff proved to be too early. Fans, he said, are more interested in tailgating than milling about inside the stadium, and the Jets were wasting resources—and money—by staffing concession stands for an extra hour. So now the gates open two hours before kickoff.

But Mr. Johnson and his staff still want fans inside the stadium before kickoff, and he found there was only a slow trickle before the Jets were host to the Cincinnati Bengals on Nov. 25. So to provide some incentive before they played the Miami Dolphins on Dec. 12, the Jets announced a 25% discount on food and non-alcoholic beverages for the first hour. Sales increased by 50% during that hour—fans came through the turnstiles at a brisk rate of 400 per minute—and were up 20% overall compared to the team’s previous two home games.

“Without the program, we wouldn’t have been able to track that,” Mr. Sheely said.

The final two stages of the process seem to excite Mr. Johnson the most. They revolve around what the team describes as “fan engagement,” and Roundarch is expected to unveil a mobile application next year that fans will be able to download to their hand-held devices.

Mr. Johnson said he anticipates a wide range of uses. Which bathrooms are the most empty? Are there any traffic issues near the stadium? Mr. Johnson even suggested using the app to announce beer discounts at various concession stands as a way to control crowd flow.

“I can see fans controlling the huge video boards through the app,” Mr. Johnson said. “We want that sort of interactivity. They’ll decide what they want to see, what music they want to hear. We’re even working on something where they’ll be able to predict plays, a sort of contest—although they won’t be able to call plays, at least for the moment.”

The Command Center, Mr. Johnson said, is limited only by “the imagination”—and by its inability to score touchdowns.

Write to Scott Cacciola at scott.cacciola@wsj.com.

From: WSJ.com

By: Tom Van Riper

Selling a few more cold beers or team caps may not recoup the revenue that Jets owner Woody Johnson lost out on by not selling all his PSLs, but every little bit counts.

During the Jets’ opening Monday night loss to the Baltimore Ravens, executives from Roundarch, a Chicago-based builder of web and mobile applications, showed off the new revenue-tracking device they built for Johnson and Jets brass in the company’s Meadowlands Stadium suite. It’s a 42-inch touchscreen that spits out up-to-the minute sales figures for concessions, tickets, parking, and merchandise. Call it the Woody Johnson command center.

The Jets are the first major sports team to try the Roundarch product. Company execs, hoping it will catch on, plan to demonstrate it around the NFL this season. Visiting Ravens executives were checking it out Monday night.

The application breaks everything down by category and individual item, while highlighting the best and worst performers. If Diet Pepsi is a particuarly big seller at a refreshment stand on the upper concourse, Johnson will know immediately. If a given parking lot that’s usually filled to capacity is a quarter empty today, he’ll know that too.

Traditionally, team executives wait until after game day to review stadium sales data and make adjustments for the following week. The idea behind real-time tracking is the ability to change promotions and adjust inventory on the fly to nab additional customers. If Mark Sanchez jerseys aren’t selling well at one of the team stores, Johnson can alert his merchandise manager, who could display them more prominently or, conceivably, mark down the price a little.

With thousands of potential customers walking the stadium, “the idea is to spur action between the tailgate and the seats,” said David Vanslette, a Roundarch vice president.

For Johnson and the Jets, game-day revenue tracking might prove to be a mere first step. Drilling down to individual customer behavior – who’s buying what, who’s not in his seat, who’s leaving early – yields even more valuable information. “I told him he ought to put RFID on every ticket,” said Vanslette. Tempting as that is, management isn’t yet ready to infringe on fan privacy to that degree. But in the new world of wired sports stadium, can it be far behind?

From: Blog.Forbes.com

A look inside New Meadowlands Stadium’s clubs (PDF).

New Meadowlands Stadium will feature what’s billed as revolutionary technology after Verizon and Cisco combined to provide digital video and wireless content over a network that requires 10,000 data ports and thousands of miles of cable.

The technology allows for branding, such as the stadium turning from blue to green depending on the host team. Video screens throughout the stadium range from offering food menus to in-game video to statistical information. In addition to the four high-definition video scoreboards in the stadium, there are more than 2,200 HD video displays throughout the facility.

“There’s highly interactive capabilities,” said chief technology officer Peter Brickman, who gave the example of wishing happy birthday on a video screen to a customer at a concessions stand.

“Plus, we have capabilities of tracking what’s being purchased, the popularity of how it’s selling, the popularity of our sales people. … We have ways to monitor and make sure our concession stands are working more efficiently.”

The Jets are also independently working with technology providers FanVision and Roundarch. The former offers handheld devices to fans that show video of the game from different angles. The latter provides real-time stadium data to the Jets in an effort to enhance the fan experience.

“Technology is key to the operation of this building,” Jets owner Woody Johnson said.

The technology has advanced so much, in fact, that some of it was not yet invented at the conception of the stadium. The fiber optics are now installed, though, so Verizon chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg said the only issue is keeping the software up-to-date with advancements.

Of course, the $100 million invested in stadium technology means little if the product on the field is not satisfactory.

“I’ve been in this business long enough to know that nothing enhances the fan experience more than putting a winning team on the field,” Giants owner John Mara said. “But having seen what other stadiums around the country have accomplished, we decided very early on that we wanted to be the most technologically advanced stadium in the world.”

From: NJ.com