Seven years ago, when we launched CleanPix, we publicized the service as a "cleaner & greener" way to do business. Our target market at the time was primarily the tourism and hospitality industry. We took for granted that any service proposing an environmentally friendlier alternative to accomplish everyday tasks would obviously do well. Like many others, including some of our clients at the time, we assumed that the protection and preservation of the environment must be essential to the brand of any destinations and therefore any practice that favors this aspect would win. We were mistaken. Our earlier "green" strategy fell below the radar for the most part. It failed despite the community's eloquent words on the subject. Very few players were ready to act on it. This has now changed radically . "Green" has become a serious economic threat to those who refuse to dive into the digital age.

Passing from "NEAT to have" to "NEED to have" is what is happening to "green". Here is what has really changed and why. The main key to change is the result of nothing less than the rise in fuel costs. The increase in fuel costs is no longer questioned but, rather, understood by all to be a permanent state of affairs. In late 2007 we were alerted in the news that FedEx may owe billions of dollars in unpaid tax... Inevitably, couriers are affected by car/truck /train/plane fossil-fuel raising costs. Sending a digital file by courier, after burning it on a CD, is the equivalent of recording a voice-message on a cassette and packaging it for the courier to pick up, instead of making a phone call. Internet is to digital files what the phone is to voice. Anything else costs too much in fuel and is a waste of time to all involved. This is not to say that the Internet has a totally clean CO2 record.

"35% of marketing dollars are consumed in manual brand asset management." (Source: Gistics 2005). Just imagine what the cost is now, or what chunk of your marketing budget is gobbled by managing digital files the old mechanical way. CleanPix by its very Internet nature offers a greener alternative to get things done. Perhaps by default ... I prefer to say by design. Our customers understand the fact that they now have LIVE control of their brand in a way unseen before. Moreover, CleanPix has infused a fresh perspective to their communication practices. Several clients are realizing unforseen saving on their budgets. Bottom line, suddenly, "greener" is economically sound. It's sad, but it appears that "green" practices are often driven solely by immediate economic results. In the case of CleanPix, the financial savings are immediate and somewhat shockingly so. None of our clients really expected it. Dealing with digital files digitally simply makes both sense and money. For some clients, merely using the service gave their careers a boost, they felt a renewed energy, they felt connected, in control. They found themselves succeeding in untapped realms. How do you measure that? We listened, got to work and strategized to figure out how to help them take the extra step. Certainly part of what we got right is that we understood that most of our clients were suffering from intense Internet/technophobia: "I hate computers". What they did not know is that we sympathized. CleanPix was born out of dealing with the frustration caused by technological incompatibilities, files that won't open, files than cannot be seen, formats that are always wrong... and having to ask IT for help at every turn. CleanPix was determined to give control of the brand to its rightful owners: not to computer specialist but rather to the PR and Marketing communicators of business organizations. We did this by creating a web interface that places the PR/marketing folks in the driver's seat. Using visual language and methods familiar to users and promoting tasks easy for them to execute without failure. In short user-friendly.

For those who see CleanPix only as a mere photo-library, where one can download pictures via a website, think again. CleanPix opens a new playing field of marketing opportunities for its users by faciliting the implementation of viral marketing practices. CleanPix customers see their campaigns hyper-linked back and forth on pressuite.com via key industry search engines, such as Google, Yahoo and the like. CleanPix is not a machine or a static website, it deals with marketing strategies.

By allowing easy bookmarking of customer news releases in key social networks, such as Facebook, and encouraging readers to subscribe to feeds of their interest, CleanPix fosters a synergetic media marketplace for its users.

CleanPix success is measured by our clients getting results. At CleanPix we understand that enhancing relationships between our customers, their partners and media professionals is key. For media professionals, journalists and travel writers www.pressuite.com is a global mediacenter, a rendez-vous, where they find our clients and their latest news releases and photos in print-ready formats. The pressuite.com site was again born out of persistent demands from the media for access to a single dedicated professional portal, away from websites that are destined to the public at large. It is strange to us that many of our potentiel customers still fail to understand that if you put the media through hoops, they really are not going to give you the time of day.

Journalists want things built for them, a standardization of information they can manage and a timely delivery process. At CleanPix we hear from journalists and end users weekly. They ask us who has this? who has that? CleanPix created pressuite.com, launched in late 2007, in response, and they love it... or at least 2600 and counting of them do, as of now. That said, part of the solution is willingness and dedication from our clients to work the service. The physics of it is simple, the early bird gets the worm.

Customers who understand viral marketing are ready to make the concerted effort needed. It is often not a question of esoteric knowledge but, rather, one of pure elbow greese. What's new! Snake oil does not work on the Internet. CleanPix is a service assisting marketers actively in pursuing results and there is no rocket science here or on the definition of "actively". Journalists want things built for them... and news that are... let's say it... NEWS that are news! They work very hard at it, and those among our clients that do... get the worms. In fact, no static website image-library, all by itself, would do. That is why, CleanPix proposes an all-in-one set of interactive tools designed for the marketing and PR professionals who wish to control their brand and are ready for action.

CleanPix broke away from the narrow conventional asset-management-database-systems by developing an all-in-one service to put these assets, non only under database management, but rather into action. CleanPix stays true to its objectives by answering the question: "Now the you have the assets in, how do you get them out?... and what do you do with them?" One could ask, what this has to do with "green"? Think about this: 1. eliminating the need for expensive 3" thick mediakits with slides, CD and expensive die-cut folders, by creating on-demand, Internet-driven, virtual media kits that can be updated at will; 2. eliminating dependence on packaging, couriers, fuel-driven economy, by answering, on demand, specific request for files online; 3. creating and updating live e-newsletters with the same ease and the same integrated tool to send to hundreds of your business partners; 4. publishing e-news directly to media news seekers via www.pressuite.com; 5. avoiding duplication of taska by using one set of coordinated tools to publish news simultaneously. In short, de-materializing and ramping up the synergy of internet viral marketing.

De-materializing is about moving away from dependence on conventional mechanical means. De-materializing "green" practices engage one to out-source to community driven means. (Unbelievable... e.g. Statistically, in the life of a power drill, only 20 minutes of use can be accounted for in the whole of the drill's in existances. From that perspective, who really needs to own a drill?)

The CleanPix PR/marketing service allows its users to circumvent altogether the need for burning disks, distributing hundreds of flash drives, creating packaging and sending expensive, fuel-burning couriers - all detrimental to eco-friendly practices. It makes more sense to manage digital files digitally. In addition, with the shift to 100% windpower for its electrical needs as of February 2008, CleanPix's annual emissions footprint reduction is: 35.9 tonnes in Carbon dioxide, 60.2 kgs in Nitric oxide and 91.5 kgs in Sulphur dioxide. ("By choosing clean, renewable power, CleanPix reduces its carbon footprint, helps clean up our air quality, and supports the local development of renewable energy." www.bullfrog.com)

Eliminating system duplication, maintenance, storage, hardware purchases and servicing due to obsolescence, the need to depend on busy IT staff or webmasters at every turn, is what CleanPix stands for. By using an ASP service model such as CleanPix, one is effectively de-materializing. That's green, practical and instantly proven financially sound. This is about accomplishing tasks without depending on buying or owning machines but, rather, banking on the power of a communally shared and integrated solution. This concept has not passed unnoticed at CleanPix. The ASP model of CleanPix drives the industry in a whole new spectrum of de-materialization: own your files but get the most savvy way to get them out there by using a shared service that comes with knowledge-based knowhow and, by design, is inherently eco-friendly.

This in turn explain why CleanPix, "Clean and Green", has won the Merit Award of SNCR 2007: "CleanPix Corp. program exemplifies the mission of this awards program: the successful and innovative use of new communications solutions and social media practices to enhance communications and relationships," commented Mike Manuel, SNCR Best Practices committee chairman.