Eastwick Invests in Social Business Future

SAN FRANCISCO, CA and SUNNYVALE, CA and WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwire - Aug 14, 2012) - Eastwick, one of the nation's top technology communications agencies, announces the launch of SocialxDesign (read as "Social by Design"), a new independent strategy consulting firm focused on helping businesses, government agencies and NGOs to remake themselves for the socially networked economy.

SocialxDesign will enable organizations to grow, reduce costs and increase their market value by engaging and empowering people in their ecosystems -- customers, employees, industry partners -- to take an active part in remaking the enterprise. Led by respected authorities from diverse disciplines including strategic marketing, politics and public-sector advocacy -- as well as the application of behavior design in social-engagement strategy -- SocialxDesign brings a differentiated perspective on what it means to be "social."

Backed by a strategic investment and ongoing support from Eastwick, SocialxDesign is poised to fill a gap in customer transformation and growth strategy for organizations looking for better ways to compete in markets increasingly disrupted by digital, social and mobile technologies.

Initially the firm will provide three core services for organizations looking to increase their impact in consumer marketing, enterprise marketing and collaboration, business and marketing development for technology startups, online/offline events and public sector innovation:

Discovery: A qualitative and quantitative audit of key stakeholders throughout an organization's ecosystem in order to identify opportunities and desired outcomes.

Design: The development of an engagement plan -- including strategic positioning -- designed to achieve the behavioral outcomes. 

Delivery:  Management and execution of the plan along several dimensions: technology implementation, marketing implementation and measurement and education and training.

Focus on "The New CMO"

A key constituency for SocialxDesign is the chief marketing officer (CMO), who in recent years has emerged as primary driver of strategy, growth and innovation throughout the entire enterprise.

"The world is changing, shaped by new ways of marketing and communicating," said Barbara Bates, co-founder and CEO of Eastwick who will also serve as Chairman of the new entity. "An organization today must not only know how to position itself in competitive markets but understand how to activate and motivate people in active, connected ecosystems. And in the meantime, the best CMOs -- and their counterparts in the public sector -- are beginning to understand that social is not a channel. Social creates new and sustainable value by empowering the people who matter most to your organization, whomever they are, wherever they are."

The SocialxDesign leadership team includes Chief Executive Officer Giovanni Rodriguez -- a former Eastwick partner and recognized social business strategist -- and Chief Strategy Officer Toby Chaudhuri, a leading public affairs consultant in Washington, D.C. Rodriguez and Chaudhuri met in 2011 as advisors to a White House initiative that employed both online and offline strategies to engage citizens to collaborate with federal officials and local stakeholders. The initiative has become the touchstone for the SocialxDesign service mix, which is built on the premise that the online and offline worlds can learn from one another. The team also includes Margarita Quihuis, Mark Nelson and Nic Milagro Chapa, "behavior design" consultants who have distinguished themselves working on research initiatives at Stanford University's Persuasive Technology Lab. Individually and collectively, the team has also distinguished itself for its leadership in the new world of multicultural marketing and movement-making. Rodriguez, Chaudhuri and Quihuis are noted consultants, authors and public speakers on a wide range of topics including diversity and inclusion, the role of digital and mobile in multicultural communications and global diasporas.

"We have a strong East meets West -- Silicon Valley meets D.C. -- mentality," said Rodriguez. "But it's also about North and South -- the powers of the 20^th century mixing with the emerging cultures and political powers of the 21^st century. The world is being remade, and organizations hoping to innovate and compete need to think through their entire engagement strategy. Some of it is online, some of it is offline. But all of it will take serious thought, creativity, and deliberation, which is why we say social by 'design.'"

In the face of austerity and caution, Chaudhuri said SocialxDesign's approach accelerates and increases impact, decreases costs, and disrupts business as usual in capitals everywhere.

"Every generation gets a chance to transform the world, but the new cultural and technological landscape unleashes new possibilities," said Chaudhuri. "Inspiring social movements have always originated at the ground-level. With social design, governments and organizations can empower the people they serve to take part in the work needed to shape this young century -- at a scale that can overwhelm powerful special interests and rich lobbies."

"With SocialxDesign, Eastwick is bringing the best lessons of social enterprise to the organizations hungriest to apply them," said Sam Whitmore, tech media analyst and founder of Sam Whitmore's Media Survey. "Social engagement is no longer new but huge potential remains untapped. SocialxDesign's innovative approach -- which combines science and psychology -- may change that."

For more about SocialxDesign:

Website: http://www.socialxdesign.com
Eastwick Blog: http://www.eastwick.com/blog/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/socxd
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SocialxDesign
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/socialxdesign

About SocialxDesign

We enable organizations to grow, reduce costs, and increase their market value by empowering the people they serve -- employees, customers, and citizens. With a philosophical-yet-pragmatic approach to addressing new market realities -- where empowerment is at the center of value creation -- we're helping businesses, government agencies and NGOs to remake themselves for the socially-networked economy.

An affiliate of Eastwick -- one of the nation's top technology communications agencies -- and with ties to leading social-technology research professionals at Stanford University and cutting-edge public affairs experts throughout the US -- SocialxDesign is an independent firm with offices in San Francisco, Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. Our clients include leaders in the private sector, the public sector and NGOs committed to rethinking their approach to consumer engagement.

About Eastwick

Eastwick, a respected contributor to Silicon Valley's growth and value creation for more than 20 years, has partnered with hundreds of the Valley's leading technology innovators and enterprises to connect them more deeply to the markets they serve. Using high-level business strategy, proven communications expertise and industry-acclaimed media and influencer relations, Eastwick has helped clients expand and own coveted markets and has guided more than 150 acquisitions, IPOs, fundings or other major financial events.