Giving back to the community…Ant Hill Marketing takes it seriously, as our support for probono client, Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center illustrates. We’re helping this great organization – which does so much for those with barriers to quality healthcare – develop and activate their brand. Part of the activation process includes the development of a new website. In our effort to aid the up-and-coming talent enter Portland’s creative pool, we brought our friends at Portland Art Institute (PAI) on board. The result is a Web Raising – developing a site in a day. Crazy? No way. We get to mentor PAI students and the start of Virginia Garcia’s new website. Under Ant Hill Marketing’s direction, students at PAI will join together to help Virginia Garcia push their new site live. Check out the new site on April 25th: www.virginiagarcia.org.
Archive for March, 2009
Time to make the donuts.
As if it weren’t already difficult to select the perfect donut at the shop, Dunkin Donuts launched an online campaign, engaging customers to create the next, best donut. Sweet. While the concept isn’t necessarily original (taken from many a marketing playbook like developing the next M&M color, the next HaagenDaz flavor, etc.), it is engaging and like a single donut, makes you want more. With the dangle of $12K for the winning donut, it’s all but assured that Dunkin will get many a creation.
This type of effort helps highlight why engaging your brand with both your internal and external audiences is so vital. Engaging both employees and customers energizes and invigorates both the brand and the people around you. It gets people excited. It helps build evangelists who continue to support your brand. Dunkin Donuts has more than 460,000 fans on its Facebook page and more than 11,000 followers on Twitter. They also have YouTube channel. And minus a few downfalls with this effort – website isn’t mobile friendly – it is fun. This promotional effort is part of a $100 million national campaign developed by Hill, Holliday in Boston, American Runs on Dunkin. Time will tell how many donut creations they receive but the endearment and trust they build with customers is worth much more than the next donut creation. Unless of course it’s filled with chocolate kreme.
Social Media Club PDX is holding their second meeting tomorrow, Tuesday March 24th at WebTrends. Kelly Feller, Social Media Strategiest for Intel’s Social Media Center for Excellence will be speaking about Careers in Social Media. Below is a summary of the event.
Getting It: Careers in Social Media
Are there really jobs in social media and if so, how do I get one? With all the self-proclaimed social media pundits, experts and gurus out there, it’s easy to wonder if the only jobs in social media are for consultants or agencies trying to help big corporations “get it.” Well Kelly is living proof that some big companies do “get it” and are willing to put their money where their online mouths are by hiring specialists with expertise in “being social online.”
Join Kelly Feller for the second official Social Media Club Portland meeting where she’ll summarize various corporate social media jobs (hers included) and what they actually entail. She will also explore ways to stand out in this increasingly crowded space and give some hints to agencies and consultants who are helping companies make sense of the growing social media marketing movement.
Date: Tuesday, March 24rd, 2009
Location:
WebTrends
851 SW 6th Ave. Suite 1600
Portland, OR 97204
Time: Networking 6-6:30, Presentation: 6:30-8pm
Cost: Free. Seating is limited.
Supported by Widmer Brothers.
RSVP
There are great perks about working down in the Pearl. Great restaurants, great bars, great shopping… but when it comes to parking. There isn’t anything great about it. There is no better way to end your day… then to go out to your car after a hard day’s work and see that little yellow envelope greeting you on your windshield. Even worse is when you just missed the parking patrol by mere minutes. I like to think of it as our way of supporting the local economy. (We are definitely doing our part.) I snapped a few photos to remember these momentous parking ticket occasions. Here are just a few from the last couple of weeks…. (Yes, Siobhán wins the award for getting the most parking tickets.)
That reminds me.. better go feed my meter.
Wondering how Portland will push through the down economy and grow stronger in the future? Mayor Sam Adams spoke with creative industry folk at the PAF event on March 10. He outlined his Sustainable Economic Development Strategy that details a five year plan to promote economic growth and job creation for our fair city. There are lofty goals including building the most sustainable economy in the U.S. and creating 10,000 new jobs. To do so, we (the businesses of Portland) must be leaders in sustainable job growth, sustainable way of life and inclusive prosperity that doesn’t leave anyone out from reaping benefit to growth.
Recognizing the strength of creative services industry and the subset that includes marketing, advertising, design, and interactive shops, he told those in attendance that he would travel to help local businesses grow and help gain focus on local firms pitching clients outside the city and region. He and his team are also working diligently to aid in bringing new business headquarters to Portland (read – new clients).
Currently the Mayor and his team are working on a “creative capacity” project strategy to be delivered in April. Based on what he explained, this strategy does not include creative firms and is mostly the arts (due to lack of funding and the need to stabilize the arts). However, the plan is to partner with Portland’s creative services industry to aid in – what many have longed to hear – developing a brand strategy for the City of Portland. He followed by emphasizing that the goal is to be strategic, not simply develop a logo or a look.
Our Mayor seems to get the benefit of brand development. But, it leaves me wondering, why not include the creative service industry folks in the planning now? To deliver on the brand, it’s got to be infused into and aligned with all functional areas of our city and needs to be a part of the strategy now, not simply a piece of the delivery. Just as a private sector organization must align its business and brand strategies in order to deliver on the brand promise throughout the organization, so too should government entities align city strategies and brand. If not, our fair city may miss the boat and wind up with just a logo and a look and another campaign.