Editor’s note: RTP Beat is a regular feature on Thursdays.Competing for young teachers in a nationwide shortage, the Durham School District chose an appropriately high tech way to appeal to bring potential candidates to the Research Triangle area: a marketing CD-Rom.

Fred Williams, Durham Public Schools’ coordinator of teacher recruitment and retention, says the school system was looking for a way to stand apart from other districts.

“We wanted a marketing tool that would highlight the many faces of Durham, from enjoying a Bulls baseball game to attending a theater performance at Duke University,” Williams says. “The Durham Convention and Visitors Bureau provided video footage that shows the progressive nature of the city, while video clips feature our teachers and principals talking about all the resources that make this a great place to work.

The CD was designed by a two-year-old Durham-based company, 21 CD Inc. Lots of marketing and advertising companies offer clients CD campaigns, Peter Nyberg, president and co-founder tells Local Tech Wire. But 21 CD has a secret sauce: use tracking.

How, when and what

The CDs let clients track how, when, and what users do with them via embedded Internet reporting. The sophisticated Web-based interface shows clients a numerical breakdown of the dates users access the CDs, which parts of them are viewed most often, which are viewed least often, and other graphed or charted information.

That allows its clients to access which parts of their marketing materials are working and which are not. Knowing when people pop the CDs in their computers helps the clients time their marketing efforts better.

“It allows us to provide real time data on the efficacy of the campaign,” Nyberg says. “We don’t know of anyone else doing this and we think we’re onto something here.” So much so that other advertising and marketing agencies are starting to come to the firm asking them to add the embedded tracking capability to CD campaigns for their clients.

“That’s great for us,” Nyberg says. “We don’t have to spend time marketing to get the client and they’re our highest margin projects.”

The company charges a onetime design or development fee that ranges from a few thousand dollars to close to $100,000, a quantity-driven price for producing CDs which goes down per CD as total quantity goes up, and a for a tracking service agreement of three, six or 12 months.

Saves postage

Still, Nyberg says, comparing apples to apples, the service cost is comparable to paper or less for direct mail. For retailers mailing large catalogs, converting to CDs may save considerable amounts in postage. Nyberg says 21 CD offers a package deal that lets companies send CDs for one stamp, while some companies pay up to $5 each to mail fat print catalogs.

The company has a proprietary method of converting Adobe PDF files to digital CDs, and many companies have catalogs and other information stored in large PDF files.

This weekend the company will do a project with comedian Jeff Foxworthy, who will video a CD thank-you to supporters of the Duke Children’s Hospital annual golf event.

21 CD works with Duke University, The Durham Chamber of Commerce, Presbyterian Church U.S.A., MeadWestvaco Corporation, Professional Golf Association of America, Bald Head Island, among other clients. Nyberg says the company advises its clients to “do the right thing” and let users know they’re being tracked. But the company “leaves that to the client and some do, some don’t,” he says.

“We’re not downloading anything or installing anything on their computer,” he notes. “It’s a noninvasive way of capturing user activity.”

The company, self-funded at over a million but less than two million by founders Nyberg and Jason Song, has 12 employees in a 3,000 square foot office in the distinctive, mirror-like University Tower, near SouthPoint Mall off 15-501.

Lord in Denver

Dr. J. David Carlson, an engineer with Lord Corp., Cary, will deliver the keynote address at next month’s Magnetics 2004 technology conference in Denver.

Carlson has spent the last 18 years researching and developing controllable fluid technology.

Lord Corp. has focused intensive research and development on making its magnetorehological (MR) fluids, devices and systems. They are currently used as controllable shock absorbers on Cadillac and Corvette and future car models and for truck and agricultural equipment suspension seats.

The company recently won a contract to use its innovative technology to help build the longest suspension bridge in the world in China.

Carlson will talk to the June 9 conference in Denver about the basic principles of MR fluids and their use for smart automotive shock absorbers, dampers for lessening earthquake damage to buildings, and in special motion control devices for artificial limbs.
Lord Corp. has sales over $440 million annually. Headquartered in Cary, it has plants in seven states, operations in ten countries and 2,200 employees worldwide.

Broadwick moving

Broadwick Corp. says it now has 335 customers for its IntelliContact Pro, including its first Fortune 500 client, International Paper.

The Chapel Hill company plans to move its offices in September but is still debating between several Class A office space locations, says Neal Lancia, director of customer service.

Lancia also tells LTW that the company is up to 10 employees in its current office.

Lancia also notes that Josh Carlton, Broadwick’s vice president of marketing until recently, has left his position to go back to graduate school in Austin, Texas.

21 CD: www.21cd.com

Broadwick: www.broadwick.com

Lord Corp:: www.lordcorp.com