To this point in 2012 we have seen The Appleton Group (TAG) increase its focus on branding TIAG and TAGLaw to corporations, UK's magazine Accountancy Age rank our alliances Number Three in the world, our membership increase and our California members host a spectacular conference in San Francisco.

Global Status

Accountancy Age recently ranked Associations and Alliances and positioned The Appleton Group alliances in the Number 3 position.

A note below the rankings table reads: The Appleton Group Inc. is the parent company of TIAG and TAGLaw which are alliances of high quality, independent accounting and law firms. Combined, the two alliances provide professional accounting, financial and legal services on a worldwide scale. With approximately 8,000 professionals in over 260 member firms, and more than 500 offices in over 90 countries, the two alliances serve tens of thousands of clients from all industry and commercial sectors. For more information about TIAG, visit www.TIAGnet.com or more information on TAGLaw, visit www.TAGLaw.com.

To show some comparable news from TAGLaw we include a chart below from the San Francisco conference where one of our keynote speakers was Professor Carol Silver of Indiana University. During her talk she compared three of the largest global law firms with TAGLaw. Here is her chart.

As the chart shows, TAGLaw is represented in twice as many countries with roughly twice as many qualified lawyers as each of these major law firms and has more offices than all three combined.

New Marketing and Branding Initiative

One clear message we hear regularly is that members wish to capitalize on the size and global reach of TIAG and TAGLaw. Our primary marketing and branding initiative for 2012 and 2013 is to expose the alliances more effectively to prospective corporate clients around the world.

Currently, we have three projects underway as part of this initiative:

1) Media Outreach: More articles submitted to and interviews given by TIAG and TAGLaw management to legal and business-oriented media.

2) Promotion: Development of an online video explaining the benefits of working with TIAG and TAGLaw Members

3) Social Media Exposure: Enhanced visibility on sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter

Since this new initiative started, progress has been made in all three areas. The placement of the TIAG/TAGLaw alliances so prominently in the UK's Accounting Age is a tribute to the persistent lobbying of TAG President, Bob Sattin assisted by Executive Director, Joe Farrell to convince the editors to include both of our alliances in their analysis as they do for single name alliances of accountants and lawyers.

On the TAGLaw side, in-house legal departments and other followers of the European legal market received a large dose of TAGLaw in a recent issue of Lawyer's Monthly magazine through an interview with Bob Sattin and Joe Farrell. We have also issued press releases more frequently and have had these picked up by services such as CBSnews.com and other internationally known media outlets.

For promotion, we have hired the firm Angel Vision to create an "Impact Movie," a 3-minute video that we believe will be of great value in explaining the benefits of TIAG and TAGLaw to your prospective clients. As a TIAG or TAGLaw member, you will be able to customize this video to include your firm's information. A final product is expected before the end of the summer.

In social media, our presence on sites such as LinkedIn and Twitter grows exponentially. Every day, TIAG members are connecting to us, or their fellow Specialty Groups on LinkedIn, or they are following our news releases on Twitter. As more people connect to us on LinkedIn and Twitter, their contacts in turn see the news items we post. One key benefit to exposure on these sites is that it leads to people finding TIAG firms more easily when they look for information on search engines such as Google, as the messages we post are amplified by the number of followers we have. For this reason, we encourage you to join us on LinkedIn and Twitter and to send us your news so we can distribute it through these channels.

Information technology changes rapidly, and we continue to look at how social media will evolve to ensure we use it responsibly and to the greatest benefit for our members.

Membership Update

Despite our current size of 117 TIAG members and 260+ when combined with TAGLaw, we continue to add members around the world, and we appreciate your input and recommendations when you have worked with a quality accounting or law firm in a region where we do not currently have a member. While our expectation is that there will be attrition of up to 5% per year; we have been fortunate to have stayed far below that number.

Within TIAG, we have added firms in San Francisco, U.S.A. (Hemming, Morse), Saltillo, Mexico (Despacho Perez Arzate), and Togo (BAGE SARL). The members who have most recently left TIAG represented Honduras, Nicaragua and Utah. With a US focus at this time of year, we are in active discussion with firms in Alabama, Miami, New York, Alaska, St, Petersburg and Kentucky.

On the TAGLaw side, we have added members in Latvia (LETLAW), South Dakota, U.S.A. (Lindquist & Vennum), and Iceland (JP Attorneys). Firms representing Belarus, the Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Vietnam, Alaska and North Dakota have left the alliance. Active discussions are underway with prospective members in Indiana, Alaska, Belarus, Ukraine and Saudi Arabia.

We remain one of the largest, most skilled, most significant professional service alliances in the world and we continue to seek, and attract, quality new members. The recent survey by Accountancy Age attests to this. TAGLaw is also separately ranked in the top five among all law firm alliances

TIAG International Conferences

One final note about conferences. In a recent member survey of TAGLaw members, one overwhelming sentiment came through: CONFERENCES ARE IMPORTANT.

• International and regional conferences polled as the most important activities for building referral relationships
• 98% agree that the international conferences create business opportunities for their firms

Attendees at the San Francisco conference raved about the quality of their experience, from the educational sessions to the networking events and especially the gala. Brussels will be another opportunity to realize value from your TIAG membership through networking, education and Specialty Group sessions. We look forward to seeing you there.

Thank you all for taking the time to read our mid-year report and for staying up to date with the developments at TIAG. We are always interested in hearing your feedback and learning of any positive developments within your firm that we can share with the broader membership. Feel free to contact me, or any member of the TAG staff, if you have such feedback or news.

Best wishes to all.

The TAG Team

TIAG
The Appleton Group
150 Second Avenue North
St. Petersburg, FL, 33704, USA
Tel: +1 727 895 3720
Peter@TAGLaw.com
Webs: TIAGnet.com, TAGLaw.com, TAGAcademy.com