GoGreen Conference at the Phoenix Convention Center
Do you think you have your green brand and marketing figured out? Do you want to put it to the test? Join me as I moderate the workshop, Green Marketing & Branding: Creating Behavior Change during the inaugural GoGreen Conference at the Phoenix Convention Center this Tuesday, November 15.
GoGreen Conference Phoenix has a terrific lineup of speakers, including:
Al Halvorsen, Senior Director of Environmental Sustainability, Frito-Lay North America
Derrick Hall, CEO of the Arizona Diamondbacks
Phoenix Mayor, Phil Gordon
Kevin Tuerff, President, Enviromedia
I, and the Park&Co team, will be Tweeting updates all day from the event using the hastag #GoGreenPHX. If you have any questions for any of the presenters that you’d like us to ask, be sure to send us a Tweet.
Are you attending? If so, be sure to swing by the Park&Co sustainable marketing booth in the exhibit hall to say hello.
Our youngest son, Caedon, used to trot out to the back shed/my first office, cup his hands around his face and press it firmly to the locked French door looking for me, persistently calling, “Dad, daad, daaad…” He’d want to throw the ball, or help finding the cat. His visits typically came when I was on the phone with a client putting out some raging fire, not that I had many of either.
If you’re a freelance creative consultant working from home, you know the drill. But what was more frustrating for me than a 3-year-old clamoring in and out of my business day were the quiet times when there was no one around to bounce off ideas. It got lonely.
Now, 16 years later, with Caed towering at six-foot-three and about to graduate from high school, we have a new creative campus of our own to share with the world. Perhaps your world.
We have just opened CoLab, a 1,500 square foot shared space for creatives and communication consultants who yearn for a more inspirational environment than working from the kitchen table in plaid pajamas. We welcome the pajamas, and anyone who is interested in a true creative coalescence between Park&Co and fellow CoLab professionals.
Two private offices and five open creative pods are currently available. And the space includes a large shared conference room, kitchenette, great storage, and a view of Camelback Mountain. Plus a host of other amenities.
It’s first-come-first-served. So if the only creative collaboration you’re getting these days working from home is talking to your Popeye pencil holder and wiping Coco-Puffs from the chin of your toddler, come see us at CoLab. We’d love to add your spark to the place. Contact us here for a tour.
The Park&Co Creative Campus and home to CoLab at 44th & Indian School Rd., Phoenix
The following article, written by our director of client services, Stan Yamamoto, recently appeared in our Flashpoint agency newsletter, and is well worth the read if people around you are thinking more tactically than strategically.
Social media is here to stay. It’s becoming increasingly important for companies to build ongoing two-way conversations online with their customers to move products and services. The problem is that sometimes they get so caught up in the execution that they overlook the need to make sales.
For example, Burger King parted from agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky after they produced many iconic online executions like the Subservient Chicken, Coq Rock and other Facebook and viral campaigns. But according to Adage.com, the restaurant chain experienced declining sales, particularly during the last months of the relationship. You might say these tactics were one-off buzz generators, not really supporting an overarching brand strategy for Burger King.
The Burger King example just solidifies to me that social media isn’t a silver bullet for success. It is only one tactic in your marketing arsenal to help support your brand. And tactics should not be confused with strategy. I think Apple has exceptional marketing strategy across the board. And they don’t even have a Twitter account. OMG!
Now there are plenty of social media success stories, too. Like Old Spice’s use of YouTube videos and other online media for their “Smell Like a Man, Man” campaign. The difference to me seems that these attention-getting online tactics were just one part of an integrated campaign strategy that drove people to the stores, where they found additional compelling product benefits. In an Adweek.com article, “According to Nielsen, sales of Old Spice Body Wash—the line touted in the Wieden + Kennedy-created campaign—rose 11 percent over the past 12 months, and since the effort broke in February 2010, sales seem to be gaining momentum.” Ah yes, moving product. What a concept.
Companies do need to embrace new media avenues but must remember to build on things that still matter: making their brand stand for something to customers, offering a great product or service, having two-way conversations, asking people to buy from them and giving superior service after they have. Sounds so easy and so old school. But the basics of solid “blocking and tackling” in marketing is a step that many seem to miss.
Bottom line: focus on solid strategy at a brand level and the marketing tactics really do fall into place more easily. And, more importantly, move the needle for your company.
On-hold messages are the last bastion of truly disruptive marketing. Right? So we decided to make ours more than meaningless blather about our agency and services.
We enlisted amateur and/or street musicians to submit Park&Co jingles in a variety of musical genres. We immediately began spreading the word among our many social channels. (There may have been a carrier pigeon involved—it’s all such a blur now.)
The one rule was that the composers had to base their lyrics on content found on our website. With this as their inspiration, surely they could mix, mash and harmonize their way to an on-hold hit. A reward of $100 was offered for each song selected.
Within a few weeks, we had several submissions that blew us away. The Beggar Folk, all the way from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, sent us a sweet song that made us feel like we were holding hands in a coffee shop with Karen Carpenter. As their name implies, they’re a folksy singer-songwriter band. What their name doesn’t tell you is that this duo (Josh and Trista Lamb) oozes with raw talent. The Beggar Folk crooned away about our process of getting to know the client and their story. Listen to their tranquil melody here.
Our second selection came from Phoenix local Matt King. Matt is a rock star, at least in our eyes. By day, he masquerades as a hospital ER CT technician (we don’t know what it is either, but it sounds impressive), but by night, his true composer reveals itself in the form of funky beats. Not only is he a lyrical genius, he also manages to channel a reluctant Barry White. Listen to Matt’s smooth stylings here.
This process of opening up our new on-hold message to anyone who wanted to take a shot at it provided us with countless laughs and some amazingly original compositions.
I’m working on a little ditty called, “Honey Bucket Blues.” We’ve named our server “Honey Bucket,” if you’re wondering about my inspiration.
Got a tune? We’d love to add you to our on-hold balladeers.
Have you ever seen a desert erupt? I’ve lived in Phoenix for 26 years, and I’ve only witnessed one other haboob, or dust storm, to rival last night’s billowing behemoth. It raced across the desert in the twilight, like God had accidentally stepped on his vacuum bag as he was preparing for company.
