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Keeping up with the times

Tuesday, April 26, 2011 — 

 

The other day I was working on a document and trying to save something when this box popped up:

Did you catch the word floppy? Because I laughed so hard when I saw this that I didn’t even care that Word lost data.

But it also got me thinking. Looking like you are up-to-date with technology and marketing trends means you need to have all the little things covered. I tend to think that Microsoft is keeping up with what they need to in order to stay competitive. So it was surprising to me that “floppy” was left in the mix, although I have to confess that this box did appear from 2003 Microsoft Word and not the most recent edition.

I only laughed at this blooper because, in my experience, Microsoft has been trustworthy and the mention of floppy did not seem to impact anything I was working on. There was at no point when the only option was to insert a floppy. So Microsoft will survive. But what if this was a detail that was overlooked by a company that had changed all its branding and missed a word on an important part of communication? Or if it was a company that switched to Twitter for most customer service continues to direct customers to an email that somebody doesn’t check often?

I hope this post serves as a friendly reminder to stay on top of communications and to remember the details!

Erica Gordon is a Marketing Associate at Clear Verve and also works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. She recently received her Communication MA from Marquette University. Follow Erica on Twitter @erica_g.

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Gum Package Highlight: Orbit

Thursday, April 7, 2011 — 

 

Gum packaging design is usually simple: a minimal number of colors representing the flavor and all the information. I’m going to skip past the package changes this past decade or so.

Remember these?

I don’t usually notice gum packaging. Does anyone really? Grabbing a piece of gum is not usually a slow process. It’s usually done without much, if any, of a glance at the packaging. I know if it’s in my purse that I don’t even take the package out. It’s easy to get a piece out without looking.

Gum is simply about flavor and meeting a need of fresh breath or something to chew. It’s not about admiring the package.

And that’s why I think it took me so long to notice what Orbit is doing with their packaging. Underneath the flap on the package (which happened to be sitting open on my desk at work while I was looking around for inspiration) is a code. If you go to Orbit’s special website and enter the code on your pack of gum, Orbit will donate 50¢ to Keep America Beautiful.

Here’s a sample of the flash intro from the page:

Kind of cool, right? I thought so. Let’s just hope that more people notice the code! Over $40,000 has been raised, but it’s still a long way from the goal of $300,000.

Erica Gordon is a Marketing Associate at Clear Verve and also works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. She recently received her Communication MA from Marquette University. Follow Erica on Twitter @erica_g.

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What can you do with a hotel room?

Friday, March 25, 2011 — 

 

First of all, notice I said, “What can you do with a hotel room?” not what can you do in a hotel room. Big difference! (And not the subject of this post.)

Recently, a client approached us with an opportunity to do something really fun and challenging. They wanted to create a movie theatre-like experience to accompany a trade show at which they were launching a new product. Important customers were invited to the “theatre” for educational presentations on the new product. We’re really proud of the results, which you can see below. We transformed an ordinary hotel conference room into something that really looked like a theatre with a red carpet and a candy counter. We even popped fresh popcorn throughout the day, making it smell like a theatre too! We’re especially proud of the movie posters lining the sides of the room in which the new product took a starring role in some well-known movies from the past 50 years.

Take a look – we hope you find these photos inspirational!

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns.  Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve.

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Are You Ready for Some Football?

Saturday, February 5, 2011 — 

 

It’s the day before Super Bowl XLV and the anticipation in Wisconsin is building.  This is a big deal for our Green Bay Packers and also our state.  If you would like to get press coverage for your organization in Wisconsin, you might just be out of luck until the Super Bowl frenzy calms down.  That is, unless you have something truly unique, newsworthy or an out of this world connection to the big game to share.

In honor of the Super Bowl frenzy, we have brainstormed five ideas tied to Super Bowl XLV we think might get you some press coverage. Or you could just enjoy the game and try pitching real news on Monday, when you might have a chance of getting noticed (unless the Packers win):

1).  You have a bunch of tickets to the Super Bowl. Rather than charging 50x face value, you want to give them away and need to get the word out fast (sounds like a great promotion for social media – it would spread fast).

2).  You are at the game and you traveled the longest distance to get to the game (on foot) and have been traveling for a half the year. (Don’t ask us how you knew to start walking in September.) 

3).  Your company and agency created this super awesome TV commercial and dropped $6 million (plus production costs) to have your 30 second commercial air a couple times.  Your awesome commercial then got rave reviews online, through social networking sites and tons of press coverage before it even aired on TV.

4).  You staged an amazing viral flashmob-like event and had the entire crowd at Super Bowl XLV in on it.

5).   Your company manufactures Packers merchandise and a major natural disaster occurs. (Not that we actually want that to happen. The news coverage is not worth everything you’d lose!)

Bring on the game!  Go Pack. 

Susan Schoultz is Client Service Director at Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns.  Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve2.

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Can YOU bring good things to life?

Thursday, January 27, 2011 — 

 

I mean, I don’t doubt you.

We can all bring good things to life. But can you use the tagline “we bring good things to life” now that GE doesn’t use it anymore? Trademark rights do exist, but the gray area after trademarks expire is what is so interesting. This brings me to the point of this post: what happens once taglines are retired? (Disclaimer: This post has a lot of questions. But there are some answers!)

The term of a federal trademark can last indefinitely if whatever you are trademarking continues to get used. So, a tagline could be trademarked for its first ten year term and then renewed continually. Bringing it back to GE, the “we bring good things to life” line was used from 1972-2003 until they announced “Imagination at work.” (Sidebar: I LOVED those commercials, especially this one in 2005.) But GE let it be known that they were going in a different direction. So does that make it up for grabs? Or is it GE’s forever? I personally find it hard to believe that a company can own a phrase forever if they are not using it anymore.

Here are a few other examples of tagline “afterlives” that I’m curious about (thanks to this great Forbes link):

  • Don’t leave home without it. (American Express)
  • Think different (Apple)
  • It Takes a Lickin’, But Keeps on Tickin’ (Timex)
  • Tastes great, less filling (Miller) – Resurrected in 2008, but what if someone had used it in the meantime?
  • Like a Rock (Chevy)

So now for the multitude of questions: Where do these taglines now sit in the world? Can they ever be used again? If you had the opportunity, would you dare touch one? Or create one that is similar?

To find some answers I asked a Milwaukee attorney who has some experience in trademarks. She explained that in addition to the general rule for trademarks in the United States as stated above, there is also the concept of “residual goodwill.” Residual goodwill means that trademarks can retain their significance as a trademark if consumers will still recognize the mark as designating by a company even if the trademark is not in use. So, it’s kind of like having good sportsmanship in the creative world.

With all these rules and understandings in place, it seems like a company will probably never use another company’s famous tagline, even if decades have passed, but there’s always a chance. And I can’t help but wonder if someday a company will be adamant that THEIR company can bring good things to life in a different way than GE. (And sorry to keep picking on GE, but I’m most intrigued by this one since it recently went away.) Will GE be insulted? Flattered? Legally obligated to sue?

I guess the only way to find out is to keep watching.

But I want to end on another thing I DO know. The more I think about what happens when a company is done using a tagline, the more I see that a tagline really needs to be smart and creative to have true staying power. If a company can get people to know who they are from a tagline that’s they are not using anymore years down the line, well, I’d say they brought good things to life.

(Still interested? I also discovered there’s a blog solely dedicated to law and creativity. Check it out! http://www.duetsblog.com/)

Erica Gordon is a Marketing Associate at Clear Verve and works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. She recently received her Communication MA from Marquette University. Follow Erica on Twitter @erica_g.

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15 Minutes of Fame

Friday, August 27, 2010 — 

 

People envy you. People talk about you. People put you down. This is what happens during your 15 minutes of fame, if and when you get it. Is there ever a right way to handle it? Can you be prepared for it in advance? And with today’s “faster than a speeding bullet” news delivery, can you ever react fast enough?  What would you do if you were the JetBlue flight attendant?  Conversely, YouTube is betting our online attention span has gotten longer and recently upped their video maximum to 15 minutes (New York Times Bits Blog).

There are so many intricacies surrounding 15 minutes of fame, even though it sounds like it should be simple. Here’s a list of people I’ve compiled (via memory and a little Twitter help). I think most of these people, who got famous for a variety of reasons, got a bum rap.

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher – Joe the Plumber
James Frey – A Million Little Pieces book controversy
Ken Jennings – long-running Jeopardy winner
Larry Platt – Pants on the Ground
Spencer and Heidi Pratt – The Hills
Susan Boyle – sang “I Dreamed a Dream” on Britain’s Got Talent
William Hung – sang “She Bangs” on American Idol tryout

Individuals are seldom ready for an onslaught of attention, but most organizations prepare for the good and the bad sides of media for years in advance. And this preparedness shows when businesses or people handle their 15 minutes well. The tricky part is making the time count, with the right balance of storytelling and personality. And my big thought and question is: does that right balance really exist?

Now for the interactive portion (which I think has the potential for some really great debate!):

1. Can you think of a person or organization that had 15 minutes of fame and benefited from it without any backlash?
2. Is your company or organization ready for 15 minutes of fame if it happens?
3. Personally, how would you handle all the fame?

Erica Gordon is currently interning at Clear Verve and works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. She recently received her Communication MA from Marquette University.  Follow Erica on Twitter @erica_g.

Address, React & Recover

Wednesday, May 19, 2010 — 

 

Last week, I attended the Waukesha County Women of Distinction event at the Country Springs Hotel in Pewaukee. I am always inspired by this event and the positive things the women honored have done in our community as well as the work of the Waukesha Community Foundation.  Overall, the event was very well done including the raffle packages, information shared on the group and especially speeches by each award recipient.

This was my second time attending the event and this time around I got a little more than I bargained for – a nasty novovirus that affected about a hundred people at the event.  Its amazing how fast these flu viruses spread – within a little over 24 hours.

I have to commend the Country Springs Hotel on how they handled this situation.  It is not the type of PR a banquet facility likes to have.  They had their crisis plan in place and gave statements to the media right away when a bunch of reports came in that people who attended the event were sick.  They addressed the situation and reacted to what they were going to do to prevent future illnesses including sending home staff and thorough cleaning of the kitchen area.  Now comes the recovery part. This location is one of the best places for large events in the area.  There are still people that are a little skittish about the illness, but the Waukesha County public health department did a good job getting information out via the news media.  The one criticism I would make is that they also should have called back those that reported they were ill and attended the event – this may be something in the works though.

Susan Schoultz is Client Service Director at Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns.  Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve2.

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One Nonprofit’s Strategy on Facebook

Monday, May 17, 2010 — 

 

This week’s post comes to us from guest blogger Caroline Anderson, Public Relations and Advocacy Coordinator at Meta House.

Meta House recently ran a successful fundraising and awareness campaign on twitter, as Clear Verve blogged about earlier. Afterwards, we were asked to participate in a seminar on ‘Social Media Strategies for Nonprofits’ at the BizTech Conference & Expo on Thursday, April 29. Our panel of four discussed various ways that nonprofits use social media like facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. and the audience seemed to appreciate hearing about our different approaches.

Clear Verve invited Meta House to guest blog and share our facebook strategy. Without claiming to know it all (especially because social media is always evolving…and no one likes a self-proclaimed expert anyway) here is the general approach that Meta House uses on Facebook. We hope that this blog will help other nonprofit organizations as they navigate social media!

Background on the organization: “Meta House helps women struggling with drug and alcohol addiction reclaim their lives and rebuild their families. Its model program meets the unique needs of women and their children, ending the generational cycle of substance abuse.” This is important to know, because unlike an organization that works with cute puppies or something else with easy crowd appeal, we are working against a stigmatized conception of drug addicts. By sharing their stories of recovery and the benefits of treatment, we help fight this stigma and increase support for our mission.

Frequency: We usually update our Facebook page about 4 times per week. If stretching to find news for an update, better to post nothing. If time is an issue because of other obligations one week, that’s ok. Conversely, if lots of exciting things are happening then we might post more…but we don’t want to flood News Feeds.

Audience: We have a diverse group of “fans” (now that we “like” pages, is the noun still “fan”?) including: Meta House clients, graduates, staff, volunteers, donors, sponsors, and new supporters of the organization. Some fans know a lot about us, and some may just have a general interest in women’s issues or addiction and treatment.

Content of updates: We try to post items that will be interesting for everyone, which isn’t always easy. We share about both big and small happenings going on in the various programs at Meta House – from a healthy baby being born to a topic discussed in one of our treatment classes. Our women and their children go on outings around Milwaukee, so we like to share about the fun places they visit, especially because most of it happens for free! Sometimes we put out timely requests if we need something specific, like diapers in large sizes or volunteers to help with a project.

Sharing other media: If we are featured somewhere else online, we share a link to it. After an event, we post photos and encourage people to tag themselves and friends. We have videos on YouTube featuring some of our graduates’ stories, and we post them in the hopes that viewers will gain a greater understanding and empathy for the women we serve.

Applications: We have a Causes page and have raised some money through that application, mostly during “America’s Giving Challenge” and when a supporter makes us the focus of their Birthday Wish. We tried to win on Chase Community Giving, but there was too much competition.

The person behind the updates: Remember how we said that we don’t know it all? Meta House was unsure of how to move forward with social media, as full-time staff didn’t have enough time and interns were too temporary. When I (Caroline) began working at Meta House part-time in September 2009, it was clear that it would be me or no one. I was hesitant because I had just spent three years with the Peace Corps in Cameroon, Central Africa and felt pretty disconnected from the fast-moving online world. However, I began learning by observing other nonprofits in action, attending trainings and webinars on the subject, and talking to new contacts. Christina Steder of Clear Verve also volunteered her advice! Slowly, I began to tweet and update the Meta House fan page. I’ve learned a lot from our followers- their responses are the best indication of what to adjust in your strategy.

We’ll end with a shameless request: please “like” us and suggest us to your friends as well! Thanks for reading.

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Fundraising with Twitter

Monday, April 12, 2010 — 

 

This week, we will launch a first for Milwaukee. On Friday, April 16, in conjunction with A Day for Meta House, Clear Verve has organized the first ever Milwaukee-area twitter-based fundraiser. Thanks to the generosity of Manpower and the vision of the people at Meta House, we hope to raise $1500 through retweets of the hashtag #Day4MH. Here’s how it will work:

During the tweetathon, Meta House will be using twitter to send out messages about their mission, the activities that will be happening at the breakfast and lunch events, and Manpower’s support for retweeted messages. Tweets will also be sent following the theme for the day – the ripple effect of addiction and recovery and how one person’s life affects many other’s – and asking people to share their messages of inspiration and the people who have impacted their lives.

Then, Milwaukee-area tweetathon participants are invited to attend a tweetup at iPic at Bayshore from 5:00 – 7:00 pm. Admission is free, but freewill donations will be accepted to benefit Meta House. Attendees can RSVP for the tweetup by clicking here.

If you don’t know much about Meta House, be sure to follow #Day4MH on twitter, you will learn a lot. They are an amazing organization, a nationally recognized treatment center that has been providing alcohol and other drug abuse treatment services designed specifically for women since 1963. Meta House helps women struggling with drug and alcohol addiction reclaim their lives and rebuild their families. Its model program meets the unique needs of women and their children, ending the generational cycle of substance abuse. Meta House knows that women are likely to have become addicted in response to the pain of traumatic life experiences. They also know that women succeed in treatment when they have a healing environment that understands the importance of their roles in society. For more information, visit www.metahouse.org.

So, how can you help?

We hope you’ll participate in this great experiment and help a wonderful organization make a difference in Milwaukee. Be sure to follow #Day4MH on twitter and take a moment to retweet a few times. Then, show up at iPic to meet the other Milwaukee-area tweeps who will help us raise up to $1500 for Meta House. We’re confident we’ll reach our goal and we hope you’ll be a part of it!

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Honesty & Integrity in Communications

Friday, April 9, 2010 — 

 

Being honest can be tough for some organizations and individuals – especially in difficult situations.  But is it okay to lie?

Some organizations choose to stretch the truth versus being honest when faced with the choice to tell the truth or lie.  This can get them into a lot of hot water.

When communicating news that is not easy to share, here are our some helpful tips for crafting messaging to retain integrity in tough circumstances.

1. Make sure your internal and external messaging is consistent and everyone involved knows how to respond. Draft a messaging plan with key messages for all levels of your organization. Be sure that everyone understands how to respond to be on the same page when answering concerns/common questions.  You should create a key message document and a backgrounder with all the facts that individuals can have on hand.

2.  Cut to the chase and don’t beat around the bush.  If something went wrong, find solutions to fix the problem, and share the solution(s).  If you do not have a solution, indicate when you expect to have a solution and a timeline as to when the solution will be ready. Do your best to correct it quickly and work to regain trust with customers.

3.  Do not lie. Stick to the facts.  If you do not know an answer, be honest and say you need to look into it.

4.  Be proactive. If your organization does not have a crisis communications plan in place, start one.  It can be general in scope but should include some basic components:

  • Possible disaster scenarios (e.g. natural disasters, being sued, how to address negative press/customer comments, etc.)
  • Outlining how individuals in your organization will respond and who will be responsible
  • Key messages
  • What information is released and how quickly
  • Crisis plans should include contact lists, information packages, and clear descriptions of how potential disasters might be handled

This is a quick list, do you have any other tips to share on integrity in communications?

Susan Schoultz is Client Service Director at Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns.  Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve2.

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