Ant Hill Marketing

Photo courtesy of www.portlandground.com

I love Portland. We’re not the city that never sleeps. We’re not the windy city. And, we’re not filled with tinsel, bleached hair and botox. But, we are overshadowed by other cities, especially when it comes to creative – and that’s a shame (or a sham depending on how you look at it). Creativity thrives here in our fair City of Roses (regardless of what Fast Company thinks). And with more than 1,500 companies, large and small, in the creative services industry, we contribute a fair share of professional services business revenue and jobs. Yet for some reason, we’re afraid to toot the horn let alone blow a low whistle (a little music once in a while is okay people). Maybe we think we’re great but need proof. Or we’re overly modest. Either way, consider this:

1. Creative services industry employs roughly 15,000 people in Portland
2. We have 344 designers per 100K residents – more than LA and Austin (according to Bureau of Labor Stats ’08 in Greater Portland Prosperity 2009)
3. The creative vitality here (based on the National Creative Vitality Index - yes there is such a thing) is more than twice the national baseline
4. Portland is among one of the most innovative cities, ranked 6 by Forbes for most patents, and 6th for both entrepreneurship and small business (Creative Capacity Project)
5. Creative industries generate nearly $2 billion and a payroll of nearly $1 billion annually (that’s no chump change) (Creative Capacity Project)
6. More than half of Oregon’s creative firms are concentrated in Portland (Creative Capacity Project)

Portland is a great place to be – to live and work. But we know that already. Even though we’re pushing through a rough spot and our state has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, we don’t have the brain drain other cities are facing. In fact, we’ve got some brain gain going on. More people are moving here from out-of-state than to our western compatriots (that’d be Seattle, Albuquerque, Austin, San Diego, Denver, San Jose, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Sacremento). The region is a magnet for all kinds of talented professionals – a chunk of them in the the creative industry and they’d rather be here than someplace else. Some get the entrepreneurial bug. It’s quite catchy here. Some freelance for local agencies or work directly with clients and supplement with other jobs. Baristas or bartenders are common, but more often they are artists, writers and musicians. Perhaps this is why Forbes dubbed Portland one of the best metro areas in which to ride out the recession. The great coffee, local microbrews, top notch wineries, and growing spirit distillers are definitely a bonus. And innovation abounds (the coffee, beer, wine, and spirits help) with the booming food scene, developing clean/green tech industry, the variety of arts and yes, our creative services industry. There’s no doubt the quality of life here is a big pull for newbies and the anchor for those of us here.  But to keep all this quiet, to simply sit idle hoping the great creative work gets noticed, isn’t the best strategy to help grow an industry sector. We all want good clients whether they reside here locally or in other regions – and other regions are touting their creative (some quite loudly).

So, what makes Portland such a great creative place? I posed this question (on Twitter) to fellow Portlanders and here’s a short list of what they said:

Portland is a great creative city because there are no rules. @DanFellini

Because Portlanders are real people. The lack of restriction and openness promotes a more creative and less stifled spirit. @massagepdx

It’s not that I don’t play well with others; I just want to choose where, when and with whom I play. [It's the] PDX attitude. @LogoMotives

Despite local chagrin, the influx of creatives from all over the country converging here brings broad perspective. @Metroknow

I have mixed feelings about it as a creative city. It’s like a college graduate: full of potential. Now it needs to find its way. @swestbrook

PDXers are curious and not too self-obsessed. Our lives are generally balanced and we leave room for non-work projects. We’re generally tolerant and open to new ideas=innovation. We’re risk takers and revel in a good fail-as-learning experience. @thisKat

Portland creativity=cuz we have twice the creative fuel with half the financial pressure. @vizeboogie

Because in PDX, there is life other than work, and that drives us to be more creative and inspired. @KevMurphy

We are passionate about living. We are free spirits. We celebrate…our ability to listen to ideas that we might not hold dear to ourselves. We live our lives out loud. @dtboyd

It’s this last point, living out loud, that strikes home.  Portland should take pride in our creative abilities and capabilities and not be afraid to shout them to the world.

In the words of Target: Our mission is to be the preferred shopping destination by delivering outstanding value and an exceptional guest experience by consistently fulfilling our Expect More. Pay Less. brand promise. No doubt in my mind: they do deliver on this promise. Shopping the store this weekend for two advertised items, neither were in stock at the store we visited. Did they let us walk away unsatisfied? No way. A cashier went so far as to shut down her register to go check on the item we wanted; not finding it, she used her hand-held to find another store that had it in stock. And at the second store, a sales associate hiked from his register to a back-store aisle and then hiked back to his station and spent 10 minutes on the phone for us finding a second item we wanted at another store and making sure it was held for us. Granted, we had to do a bit of unanticipated driving around, but these two employees went way out of their way to make sure we came away satisfied with our Target shopping experience. It’s one thing for a store to say it will deliver on its brand; it’s another for each employee we encountered to do it willingly and happily. That’s brand done right. High five to Target.

I hate to admit it, but one of my favorite reality shows on TV is TLC’s Jon & Kate plus 8 (mostly because the kids are so dang cute). I have watched this show since it aired a few years back and it has evolved and changed as it has gained popularity. Recently, I have noticed more and more brands are latching on to the show’s success and strategically (and sometimes not so strategically) using product placements in the  show to boost their own brand recognition. Sometimes the placements are seamless and go unnoticed (at least by the average audience member)…and sometimes it stands out like a sore thumb. Many people have blogged about their frustration lately.
In a recent episode, Jon and Kate got new washers for their new home. One of their conversations went something like this:

Kate: “I just love our new washer and dryer from Whirlpool! They look so beautiful sitting side-by-side in the laundry room.”
Jon: “Yeah…aren’t those the Duets?”
Kate: “They sure are, Jon! We had some in our old house and after that amazing experience, I knew the Whirlpool Duets were the ONLY washer and dryer I’d put in the new house!”

You can’t really blame Jon & Kate for accepting these offers—but it does seem to tarnish the authenticity of the show and even the “Jon & Kate” brand. I have to wonder, when it is so obvious that a brand has paid/donated to be participating on a show, if it actually detracts from the brand image rather than help it. And Whirlpool isn’t the only brand that’s fumbled when it comes to product placements. Allstate and Play-doh also made awkward appearances on the show.

Speaking of tarnishing the Jon & Kate brand, in the past few weeks there has been a lot of press around suspicions that Jon has been having an affair (superficial posted confirmation on their blog of the alleged affair). This leaves me wondering…what will these brands do that have so closely tied themselves with the Jon & Kate brand?

Now I’m not saying that product placements aren’t a smart idea. I just think they have to be done extremely well in order to pull them off. The success of brands in the future really lie in their ability to be authentic. People are able to see through the marketing crap and want to see real people interacting with the brand. But I think people can also see through a bad product placement.
There are good product placements out there. However they are usually hard to spot. When a product placement is done well, it shouldn’t be obvious. It should feel just normal. Brand Channel has a list of 2008 brand cameo product placement awards.

I will leave you with one last horrible product placement to ponder. This one was on the VH1 Best Week Ever blog.

It definitely made me laugh.

Saturday was what I would call a Win-Win-Win day. From 8:00 a.m. to midnight, Siobhan and I were at the Art Institute of Portland for their annual web raising event. For those of you who don’t know what the web raising event is — it is basically a barn raising for websites.  Each year, AI schools around the country select a local non-profit organization, gathers a team of volunteer students, and develops a website in a day.

This was the first time an agency has been involved and it elevated the event to a new level, allowing students to see the brand we developed for the client and what they have to work with for the site development. Ant Hill guided AI students to build a website for our client Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Centers.

The day was long. I’m talking really long. But it was a really exciting day. The students worked so hard and developed an amazing site that will help Virginia Garcia communicate their core mission and brand. At midnight, the site was about 95 percent completed but wasn’t quite ready to go live, so we will be picking the development back up next Saturday to finish the site.

If you want to see a play-by-play of the event, just check out the twitter stream.

Here are a few photos from the day.

The schedule. (Crazy)

Morning food spread.

Teamwork in action.

Reviewing first set of designs.

Shiv chowing down on some Webraising food.

We look forward to seeing the final results next weekend!

-Erin

Last night Jon and I attended the “Working in a Creative Economy” event that was put on by the University of Oregon. (I am a Beaver, so it was a bit hard to step inside the White Stag building (which I admit is beautiful) and be immersed in Duck land… but I survived.)

The event was a panel discussion on how those in the creative industry can/should deal with the current economic situation on a personal and business level.  The panelists included Jolie Giese from Nau/Horny Toad, Randy Higgins from Vizwerks, Steve Potestio from 52 Limited, and Susan Hoffman from W+K.

Overall, it was actually a really inspiring event. The attendance was huge (over 100 people) which is telling of how relevant the topic was. What I took away from it is a reminder that we all need to come together as a creative community and work with each other to help strengthen the industry as a whole. There was also a lot of great discussion about Oregon Creative Industries (OCI) and the work they are doing to try and unify the voice for the creative economy (creative services is one player) and give us a seat at the table.  It’s tough times for a lot of people and agencies, but it’s also helping our industry realize that we need to support each other to remain a viable part of the economy.

Plus there were also some good laughs…Susan Hoffman threw out the F’bomb a few times and got the crowd energized.

-Erin