Kevin Doell

Welcome

Kevin Doell — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:40:33 +0000

Welcome to my site and home of my professional portfolio. I use these pages to showcase my skill sets in the communications field.

Currently, I serve as the public affairs specialist for Project Manager Soldier Weapons out of Picatinny Arsenal. Our group manages the development, procurement, fielding and maintenance of all the individual and crew served weapons operated by the U.S. Army — everything from the M9 hand gun to the .50 Cal M2 machine gun. Needless to say, it is an honor serving our soldiers.

Since 1995, I have worked as a communications and public relations professional. I have extensive experience in internal, external, executive, and marketing communications, along with Web development and video production expertise. While my skills translate to all industries, my experience to date has been in private and publicly traded utility and real estate franchising companies, as well as highly capitalized start-ups, small businesses and the U.S. military.

On this site you can read my professional biography and download my resume. If you would like to see what others have said about the impact of my contributions and the value of my services, I invite you to take a look at a couple of my performance reviews.

On my portfolio pages, I have highlighted samples of my work in the following areas:

Naturally, there are numerous projects in my portfolio that cannot be posted on the Internet due to the sensitivity of the material, but I would be happy to discuss them in person.

If you are looking for a quick connection, you can reach me at 908.798.0294.

You can also send me an email: kevin.doell@gmail.com

I am also on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Thanks for visiting.

Video Production: Content is King, but Video Rules

Kevin Doell — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:38:18 +0000

People’s obsession and appetite for video is seemingly insatiable. Every minute, ten hours of video is uploaded to YouTube. As a communicator, it’s good to know your way around a camera.

To get smart on film and video, in 2005 I earned a certificate in filmmaking from New York University School of Continuing & Professional Studies. This coursework enabled me to produce multiple video projects at Realogy at significant savings to the company. Seeing the value of my department’s in-house video production capabilities, Realogy invested in building a fully functional film studio in its headquarters.

The video below features an interview Rob Fletcher of Quixote Consulting. Before rolling the tape, I first worked with Rob to hone his key messages. Once Rob was ready, I then set up the camera shoot, conducted the interview, and then edited the piece using Final Cut Pro.

In addition to numerous C-level executive and employee interviews such as the one above, I have also produced employee orientation DVDs, green screen shoots, and 16 mm color sync sound film projects.

Video: A Natural Progression

I chose to study video seeing it as a natural progression in my professional development. In my early communications career, I studied computer graphics and desktop publishing. From there I grew into the role of publications editor to share information via the written word. In time, I was promoted to media relations where I could communicate with audiences through presentations and live interviews. By adding video production to my communications skill set, I could then tell a story visually through a medium that integrates my previously acquired skills with graphics and language. Whether shooting with betacam, my own 3-chip camera, or a camera phone, my education has served me well.

To see additional video interviews I conducted and produced, please visit the B2B section of the Realogy.com site. To see more samples of my work, please visit my portfolio page.

Communications Planning: From the Napkin to Reality

Kevin Doell — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:10:00 +0000

Though a plan may have originated in the shower with subsequent revisions on a napkin, ultimately, it’s important to flesh out the ideas in a more thorough manner. This process enables the author to dive into the details that will bring a plan to life and unearth trouble spots. When it comes time to share the plan with others for feedback and refinement, it is necessary to distill the plan into an overview presentation that communicates the main points quickly and effectively.

For a sample of my planning abilities, please follow the link below:

Communications plan

To see more samples of my work, please visit my portfolio page.

Web Development and Interactive: The New Paper

Kevin Doell — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:08:02 +0000

Web is the new paper. Over the years, I have gained extensive experience working in online environments with platforms for extranets, Internet pages, and social media tools.

B2B Website

When Cendant Corporation decided to split off Realogy as a separate business unit that would list on the NYSE, I got my first chance to build a significant B2B Web site, Realogy.com. I worked with a project team from Quarry Communications to complete a series of stakeholder interviews and to develop a wire frame of the overall site based upon Realogy’s business objectives. In addition, I had the additional task of writing significant amounts of the site’s copy. A good sample of this writing is the Business to Business section.

Consumer Web Site

After joining Realogy’s subsidiary, Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC, I once again had the opportunity to work on a project team that was charged with developing a Web site, this time for consumer audiences. The site is www.BHGrealestate.com. Once again, I was an integral part of the project team that developed the wire frames for the site and conceptualized the “Look, Live and Learn” thematic that organizes the lifestyle content of the site. As the Sr. Director of Communications and Public relations, I was responsible for designing and updating the media center of the site, which houses press releases, video clips, upcoming appearances and media clips.

Social Media Tools

As part of my overall communications plan for BHGRE, I launched an industry blog, www.bhgrealestateblog.com, using the Word Press platform. The beauty of this approach was the extreme low cost of the tool compared to traditional Web developer fees that can run above $150 an hour. In addition, the flexibility and speed at which we could update the site was tremendous. Using the company blog as the center of gravity for my social media strategy, we then incorporated YouTube videos, Twitter updates and Flickr photostreams into the site posts and updates. The result is a powerful search engine optimized system of integrated Web tools that drive traffic and demonstrate leadership in the interactive space.

Intranets

Hate to date myself, but my first Web training was in basic HTML around 1997. I then moved on to using Microsoft’s FrontPage software to develop an intranet at United Water. After teaching myself the software, I trained colleagues from each department so that they could manage their own content. More recently, I have learned how to manage a Microsoft Sharepoint platform for connecting employees to the information they need to do their jobs.

To see more samples of my work, please visit my portfolio page.

Marketing Communications: The Soft Sell

kvdoell — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 01:06:04 +0000

Marketing and communications have become a blended art. Rarely can one live without the other. The sample below walks this “marcom” tightrope by laying out a complex value proposition in a storyline that is broken into bite-sized chunks. The result is a sales piece that offers substance for the reader while positioning the organization and its leaders in a positive light. I wrote and designed the structure of this document, as well as directed the photo shoot for the cover.

Sales Brochure

To see more samples of my work, please visit my portfolio page.

Customer Communications: Transparency is Key

Kevin Doell — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:52:00 +0000

Thanks to the Internet, consumers have dramatic access to more information than ever before. So while organizations can no longer hope to “control” the message, they can at least “inform” the message to the greatest extent possible by providing a rich array of open and honest communications. These communications should serve as a transparent window into the organization and its people to show how they are working each day to deliver a valuable product or service. This kind of transparency helps to maintain credibility and trust, something you really can’t put a price on.

When I worked as the publications editor for United Water, maintaining the public’s trust regarding our product — clean, fresh drinking water — was paramount. In that role, I was responsible for writing and producing consumer communications that were sent to over 1 million homes in the metropolitan New York area. Every quarter I would write the bill inserts sent to each customer, and annually I would produce a government-mandated water quality report. For particular service territories such as Toms River, N.J., I generated a special newsletter as an added level of outreach in addition to my responsibility for facilitating Customer Advisory Panel meetings in that city.

Each of these consumer communication projects required the management of many details, including editorial planning, copy writing and fact checking, art selection and procurement, desktop publishing, printing contracts and distribution coordination.

Internal Communications: To Get to the Heart, Start from the Top

Kevin Doell — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 19:39:03 +0000

For me, the objective for employee and executive communications is to get the inspiration from the heart of the leader into the hearts of the employees that are, after all, the lifeblood of any organization. The communication should be frequent, transparent, and bi-directional. In addition, it should be repetitious, redundant and served up through a variety of formats just in case somebody missed it the first and second time it was presented (and yes, I am being redundant).

Here are links to two employee communications I crafted that feature executive talk tracks.

Employee Newsletter
CEO Ethics Video Script

Beyond the written word, I believe in the communications value of the CEO video, the employee town hall and in walk-around management. The more contact the better, for when employees can hear the conviction in a leader’s voice and see the spark in his or her eyes, that’s when the best communication results.

Call me old school, but I believe in leadership from the top. Much has been said about networked organizations and how “everyone” is a leader, but I believe that deep down, people enjoy being led by a strong, fair, compassionate visionary who can drive an organization to meet its goals. I enjoy nothing more than helping just such a leader succeed.