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Here’s Where We Start to Answer Some Fast-Burning, Inbound Questions.
The Blue Highway Beacon is the direct communications channel between Blue Highway Advisory and the myriad people and organizations who are signing up daily to be included on our mailing list. The interest we’re generating as we take ourselves out of stealth mode has been remarkable and genuinely humbling. This is only the second appearance of the Beacon, and I’m pleased to be communicating directly with our rapidly expanding network.
As Blue Highway’s founder, I recognize the importance of stepping aside and ceding the spotlight to our team members on multiple continents who are here because they have the subject-matter knowledge and, dare I say, a bit of the sangfroid I may lack and which I dearly rely on as we expand into some new realms of the unknown. The people you’ll meet via our “Who We Are” page and the next editions of the Beacon are BHA’s true ambassadors. All of them are all multi-faceted, ultra-capable, deeply knowledgeable, extremely personable and wickedly funny. One couldn’t ask for a better group of treasured collaborators.
At first, we’ll be pushing out at least two Beacon posts a month, with a keen eye toward providing day-of, real time articles and information when called for. Beacon communications will become more frequent as we grow, and – it’s no secret that we are new and currently in immediate growth mode. I don’t shy away from admitting this. Most importantly, while we are busily providing top-tier advisory services to the “traditional” clients who routinely seek our counsel, we’re also looking to serve a wholly new client base that demonstrably needs what we offer.
Who are they, and how are they finding us? BHA has been experimenting with ads via search engines as well as print and online publications that would not normally carry services firm advertisements. For an example, please look at the front page of the Web site for the venerated, decades-running music magazine “The Big Takeover.” An ad for Blue Highway Advisory appears in prominent rotation at the top of the magazine’s title page. There’s also a half-page ad for Blue Highway in the latest print edition of “The Big Takeover.” Ads like this one will be appearing in other places in short order – music pubs, cinematic magazines, fine arts publications, entertainment industry trades, legal trades, and the like.
As intended, these ads are driving new sets of eyes to Blue Highway. However, that traffic has brought with it a series of questions and requests for clarification that, while anticipated to a degree, have helped us immensely in terms of how we will have to identify ourselves and what we do as this growth period continues. We’ll be tweaking and adjusting our Web presence and messaging in a manner that is a bit more explanatory and will better demonstrate carve-outs for the service and sector areas we champion.
In short, here’s what we’re about –
We assist varieties of “traditional” clients with public relations plans and media
campaigns; we provide litigation support (i.e. legal and lawsuit assistance) and communications support for clients facing investigations or court cases; we provide strategic advisory and communications support to law firms; we offer full-scale support services to clients facing immediate / publicly visible / existential crises; and we have a particular interest and expertise in the rapidly growing civilian space industry, where we have a natural client base directly due to the backgrounds of some of our most treasured colleagues.
What we do is not at all unusual for cities like Washington, DC and London, where we
primarily operate, or for that matter, New York, LA, Paris, Brussels or Hong Kong and
Kuala Lumpur. The specific communications and strategic advisory services industry, of which we are a recognized part, is growing rapidly in these places. This works particularly well for Blue Highway thanks to the previous career and life experiences of the remarkable figures who have chosen to join us as we build out.
But we differ, in a rather big way, from anyone else who does what we do.
All of the services we list above, and so many more that we’re not so anxious to divulge
openly just yet, are being made available by Blue Highway to the vast world of the arts in ways that have never been previously contemplated. And when we say “arts,” we mean actual creators – not necessarily rights holders, as therein may lie the ultimate problem: proper compensation to the creator of a work that is generating income for someone else.
Think of it this way: You’re a recording artist, a songwriter, an author, a composer, a
screenwriter, an actor, a visual artist, or any other color of creator, who has watched from the sidelines as well-heeled individuals and large companies avail themselves of
legal and media-driven reparative services that yield results, through litigation, through media, through pressure campaigns, or through other means that firms like ours can devise. Yet, you’ve not thought of such capabilities as being available to you, and years have dragged by without any hope of assistance for the sort of injustices you have faced.
We’re here. These services are indeed now very much available to you.
We make legal referrals. We conduct investigations, most particularly in specialized realms like financial forensics. We find funding for litigation. We promote you, and your work past and present through relentlessly aggressive press campaigns, and we highlight the hardships you may have faced as your work has been exploited. We are also adept at giving your copyright data the sort of thorough health check that will allow you to determine if or how expected, incoming compensation has fallen short. And we plan to do so much more as needed, to include advocacy and government relations, where appropriate. We are the only strategic services firm worldwide built to do this work for the creative community.
I’ll close with one last thought, while encouraging any- and everyone to keep getting in touch, and to keep asking questions. We are very often asked about our fees and compensation. Or, more bluntly, we are asked if we have honed-in on an easily tapped, maybe previously unidentified business prospect that may be ripe for “monetization.” Do we, for example, expect big percentage payouts through contingencies, or large chunks of overdue money clawed back through litigations or settlements?
Our answer has been, and will always be this: We have identified an area of need. And, a very deep one, at that. We have no intention of ever making percentage demands. Creators, no matter who they are, must benefit from the fruits and proceeds of their own work, most especially if those proceeds have been denied for months or even years. We are not designed to be yet another mouth to feed in the royalty food chain. We only get paid for the work as it is being done, at reasonable rates. And if financing is needed for deep work such as specific investigations or litigation, we’ll help to find and secure it, but we will not take a slice of litigation settlements or judgement awards. This is work borne out of love, respect, admiration, and a deep desire to give back to people and organizations that have enriched all of us.
How do we do this?
I’m not giving away the store in a blog post. But, we’ve proven that what we do works, and we can replicate it over and over again.
Ask us yourself, anytime. And please keep the new contacts and requests for information coming. We’re gobsmacked by the inbound interest, and we stand ready to serve.
Until next time,
Ian Christopher McCaleb
Founder / Principal
Blue Highway Advisory
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