For 14 years we’ve labored through September nights, consuming ungodly amounts of coffee, Coke and cheese puffs in the name of CreateAthon. It hasn’t always been pretty, and it never is when you’re facing drastic shortages of time, money, manpower and supplies. Yet somehow the work always gets done, and every year we leave CreateAthon pondering the same question:
Why doesn’t everyone in our industry do CreateAthon?
The simple, truthful answer has to do with resources. If only we had the time to put more into CreateAthon. If only we had more money to spend on marketing it. If only we had the resources to hire someone to run the program, full-time, we could recruit more people into the program to do more good for more nonprofits.
For as long as we’ve faced this conundrum, we’ve known what we had to do to address it. So I’m thrilled to announce that CreateAthon has become a 501(c)3 in its own right, joining the ranks of the organizations we’ve proudly served over the years. As a 501(c)3, CreateAthon is now in a position to pursue funding opportunities that can help us build much-needed organizational capacity — with a goal of adding full-time personnel and other resources to help the program grow.
When this sheet of paper arrived in the mail the other day, there was a collective gasp, immediately followed by parental-caliber squeals normally reserved for a child’s college acceptance letter. Proof again that our little idea is growing up.
Now that I am an adult, I have been to a few dental offices. Some I have dreaded. Others I didn’t mind. I have patiently waited hours past my appointment time in an uncomfortable chair reading a two-month-old golf magazine. Then there was the time my dentist quit without sending any sort of letter or announcement to warn me about the stranger who was to be my new dentist.
But that’s all history now. I have the best dentist ever.
I came to the practice by a referral from my husband. Actually, not really a referral. It was more out of frustrated disgust. Unbeknownst to me, my dentist of many years had “retired” and sold his practice to a new dentist. When I learned this, I was in the chair. I didn’t leave in a huff. I let the nice new dentist clean my teeth then decided to find another new dentist who was a little closer to home.
My husband suggested I go to his dentist, Dr. Thomas Pitts. Initially, I hesitated since the office was all the way in St. Andrews. Yes, all the way. I live in the city. A drive on the Interstate defeated my whole closer to home qualification. So naturally I made my next appointment with them.
Ten years later, I am positively head over heels for this practice for so many reasons.
They are nice. Everyone who works there treats every patient with full courtesy. Do not confuse this with catering to customers’ whims and complaints. They treat you respectfully and they ask the same of you.
Snowflakes. Each year starting around December 1, they leave white paper, scissors and tape in the waiting area. They want you to make a cut-up folded paper snowflake (a la Kindergarten) and tape it to the window. They don’t mind if you leave the paper bits on the floor either. There’s only one downside to this, which is the next reason I love them.
I never wait more than five minutes. During December no wait is a bit of a bummer. There’s only time to make one snowflake. They have nice, comfortable furniture and all kinds of up-to-date magazines. If you ever had to wait, this would be a great place to do it. You never will though. Not here.
Halloween. Last year I was actually there on Halloween and everyone had on a costume. Even Dr. Pitts. My teeth were checked by a pretty creepy looking vampire. How often can you say that?
They care about their patients. They know and remember me, my children, my life. They have called me to let me know they could see me earlier because of a cancellation. Their goal is not to simply meet patients’ expectations; they truly want to exceed them. While that good to great stuff is lip service for some organizations, this one lives and breathes it effortlessly.
The staff. Dr. Pitts is a very nice guy. He’s got a wry sense of humor and he’s a great dentist. He shakes your hand at every visit. The office staff and hygenists are all very nice and good at what they do. From what I can see, Dr. Pitts is equally kind to his employees. They appear to be valued, respected, included and empowered. Obviously, there’s not much turnover.
When I was in the other day, I asked them how they get most of their new patients. I really wasn’t surprised when they said they don’t advertise. All of their new patients — 100% — come via patient referrals. When you treat patients that well, you don’t need to advertise.They get a key part of marketing so many businesses never grasp.
How you treat people is the biggest message of all.
This is not so much a blog post as it is a love letter—a love letter to the Power of Good. To Open Hearts. To Friendships, new and well-seasoned.
Three years ago, on what would turn out to be merely the cusp of a game-changing Recession, I got a phone call from David Kunz, executive director of The Cooperative Ministry. I did not know David at the time, but I heard something in his voice that prompted me (against all sense and reason), to take the request he made of me to my business partners.
“The Cooperative Ministry serves the working poor in this community,” he said,”and the economy has dealt us a double blow.” Financial support for TCM was way down at a time when more people than ever were desperate for the kind of help they provide.
Would you be willing to develop a television spot to run during the holidays? David had delicately asked.
But there was more to the story. The Cooperative Ministry had been gifted a performance of the Hootie and the Blowfish megahit “Hold My Hand,” sung by the incredible Benedict College Gospel Choir. Perhaps the song could be a powerful soundtrack for the spot, he offered.
Interesting, I thought. But still there were a thousand reasons to graciously decline.
(1) No Production Budget DOES NOT = Powerful TV.
(2) We were already in work overload, doing our best to support clients in a crippling economic downturn.
(3) We had an event in place to support nonprofits, and we had held it just two months prior to this phone call. CreateAthon allows us to focus our pro bono efforts into one concentrated time period—and we hadn’t quite wrapped up that work yet.
And yet I felt compelled to approach my partners with the possibility of helping The Cooperative Ministry. They really need us, and right now, I said. With no hesitation, there was a unanimous partner vote. Yes, they said.
It was not an easy assignment. We were committed to creating television, yes. But we also believed there was a larger story to share about the gifting of the song. We brought in volunteer creative teams to help craft what ultimately became a movement, With A Little Love. The team built a website. Keely Saye oversaw an inbound program. Ryan Cockrell produced a phenomenal video. Mad Monkey created TV magic:
Many on the team also developed a heart connection with David Kunz; his phenomenal deputy, Courtney Thomas; and the starter of this movement, Hootie and the Blowfish drummer Jim “Soni” Sonefeld. Each of those light-filled souls gave way more than they took, and they introduced us to other heart connections that have filled these three years with so many grace-filled moments the power of Doing Good simply cannot be denied.
So it is quite the understatement to say we were humbled when CreateAthon was honored by The Cooperative Ministry at their oh-so-swell gala, The GOOD Night. We thank them from way deep down for their generosity. And we thank every volunteer who has been a part of Riggs CreateAthon since its inception in 1998, as well as the nonprofits who have supported us and cheered us on all these years. We especially thank David Kunz, Courtney Thomas, and all the folks at The Cooperative Ministry who worked so hard to make The GOOD Night sparkle so brightly.
You have, do doubt, been a gift to us.
David Kunz and Courtney Thomas, celebrating The GOOD Night
CreateAthon Crew, in part
Teresa Coles and Cathy Monetti
Kerry Fulton and Ryon Edwards
Jay Coles and George Fulton
Teresa Coles, Pam Plowden and Kevin Smith. Now what's so funny?
When you’ve spent years in the creative business, you learn that most ideas – even the best of ideas – peak. Then, in order to keep them relevant, you reinvent. But once in a great while, you develop a gem of an idea with a life bigger than its time.
Fifteen years ago, Teresa Coles and I started CreateAthon simply out of a desire to give back. We joked that we worked in an industry with no redeeming social value – so we put our industry talents to work round the clock for local nonprofits. It was a good idea. It was ahead of its time. And we couldn’t have imagined how it would grow.
Of course, the world has shifted in the last fifteen years. Pretty dramatically, I’d say. From economic downturns to natural disasters to new digital connections, there’s a new attitude of we’re all in this together. The result? The role of nonprofits is more elevated than ever before, because we recognize the need to create good in our world. The Millennials, the most civic-minded generation America has seen in a long time, are leading the way with their passion, commitment, and willingness to volunteer.
The advertising industry has shifted, too. I’ve watched digital communication repaint the landscapes we were accustomed to, clearing the way for a new spirit of collaboration. It’s an exciting time to work in this business. It’s even more exciting as I’m getting ready to roll up my sleeves for this year’s CreateAthon.
What’s remarkable is not that our little idea grew into a national CreateAthon network providing pro bono marketing to hundreds of deserving nonprofits across the U.S. What’s remarkable is that CreateAthon has become a movement. In a world that’s embracing powerful movements to impact our communities for good, CreateAthon stands ready to grow faster than we’ve seen yet.
Today I visited an Apple store and bought a Mac Air. I certainly value the design and product innovation Apple continues to deliver, and the in-store experience was similarly inspiring.
The products were arranged for me to test. A large staff offered customers one-on-one attention. My computer was ordered electronically from a demo on the floor. The sales person ran my credit card through a custom iPhone app. I signed electronically using my finger, and a receipt was sent to me by e-mail. The bag was a backpack.
Clearly, Apple is iconic, yet every brand has the ability to examine such details. Moe’s Southwest Grill rethought the greeting with: “Welcome to Moe’s.” Luxury stores pay reverence to their wares when they wrap them in tissue and put them in beautiful bags. Patagonia’s shoeboxes are printed to encourage reuse as storage vessels.
Patagonia shoebox
Rethinking something basic is a wonderful way to make your brand more distinct. Given the continued volatility of today’s economy, experience-centric brand thinking makes perfect sense. Think about it, a greeting doesn’t cost a thing.
When I meet someone interesting, I usually ask “What’s your best advice for me?” And then I write it down. As I flipped through my coffee-stained Moleskine this morning (stained being an understated description of this summer’s Great Coffee Spill), I came across this little gem:
Act like an owner. – Chris Colbert, CEO of Holland-Mark
Chris told me a story about an empty yogurt cup. On his way into the office one morning, he noticed a used yogurt cup – just hanging out on the floor of the entryway. It looked pretty gross. Had his arms not been full, he would have picked it up. But they were, and besides, a whole office of employees would be coming in behind him. Someone would surely dispose of it. When he left for lunch, the yogurt cup was still there. He brought the empty cup to their next meeting, where it became an object lesson in ownership and responsibility.
What does it really mean to be an owner? To take responsibility for our investments. We choose to do this or not do this every day. We can be owners in our relationships, in our workplace, with our brand of toothpaste. We get to decide when something matters enough to us to take action.
The key for marketers is understanding what inspires that transition from mere participant to owner. What does it take for a brand to become meaningful enough for a person to claim their part – however small – in that brand’s story?
People step up where their contributions matter.
People who love your brand are more common than you might think – but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re your brand advocates. I’m a fan of CVS pharmacies. When faced with a choice between CVS and Walgreens, I’ll always choose CVS. In fact, I’d even call myself as a “CVS loyalist.” But I’m not sharing my CVS love with anyone in my life. I’m not a fan of CVS on Facebook. I don’t follow them on Twitter. I don’t know if I’ve ever visited their website. Why? Well, I’ve never been asked. And if I do decide to fan their Facebook page, does CVS actively want to hear from me? Is their online community centered on getting to know and love the people who love them the most?
People step up to be part of something.
We all want to belong. Think about the brands people talk about, the classics they are proud to wear and claim and be identified by. The common denominator is a vibrant community, a sense of group identity. We are more likely to take ownership when we feel we are joining something larger than ourselves.
If you want to create brand loyalists, keep doing the things that make your organization special. And if you want to create chatty brand loyalists, build a community that inspires your employees and your biggest fans to claim their own piece of your brand story.
One of my biggest a-ha moments at last week’s social media gathering, Social Crush, was Michael Brito’s keynote presentation on social businesses. Or rather, how social consumers are rewriting the way businesses communicate.
The days of disruptive, business-controlled marketing are fading. For budget-strapped nonprofits, this is great news. Even better news is how advocates, ambassadors and fans readily discuss and share brands, causes and nonprofits without incentive. It’s a powerful opportunity every nonprofit should embrace.
Michael shared his take on the many advantages for organizations that usher in a socially inclusive business model:
Discovery
Social consumers are Googlers. They search products, people, trivia, nearly everything. Google and other search engines are our back-up brains. Once a half-hearted luxury for many businesses, websites are now a primary marketing tool. Online activity and content creation — which includes usage of Facebook, YouTube, blogs and Twitter — give organizations better search results and “feedshare.”
Participation
Most nonprofits already have built-in advocates. They will like, fan or follow an organization or cause they believe in. Their online activity gives nonprofits opportunities for direct interaction and dialogue which build and strengthen relationships with advocates and attract the attention of new advocates.
Sharing
Even better, an energized base will share with friends and other micro-communities where they spend time. Your reach multiplies and your messaging goes father. Plus, fans usually don’t just consume content; they often create it.
Advocacy
Building relationships nurtures advocacy. Advocates talk about you because they want to, not because they have to. Advocates are trusted. They aid and influence others. Today’s social tools put our voices and those of our advocates next to willing and receptive ears.
In many ways, the playing field is more level than it has been in years. A solid content strategy can reach farther than a million dollar ad buy. An engaged corps of advocates effectively multiplies the efforts of sparsely staffed groups. Messages are limitless and unrestrained by 30-second windows of time.
If the social consumer is not yet heard in your organization, it’s time to take action.
Social is not a fad. It’s the new consumer expectation.
It is the grand gift of a new communication paradigm that has left many of us feeling overwhelmed rather than in-the-digital-know. Starting tomorrow, and every morning following, ask yourself:
What is it that we can stop doing?
Repeat with me so I will know you heard correctly:
What is it that we can stop doing?
According to Kipp Bodnar from Hubspot, a presenter who knows a thing or two about magnetic content, it goes like this:
Experiment. Track. Then STOP (if it is not working), or DO MORE (if it is working).
the gospel according to Kipp
Does this rock your world the way it does mine? I can’t remember a single time in any aspect of my life, personal or professional, when I was encouraged to just give something a try to see what happened, knowing full well I had permission to simply STOP if things didn’t work out as I planned. This concept (is that even the right word?) is truly a game-changer, and I believe it will impact the way we create, innovate and evaluate across a broad business — if not cultural — spectrum.
Needless to say, it is the biggest Day Two takeaway for me from Social Crush, an incredible, all-encompassing seminar held this week in famously hot Columbia, South Carolina. Here are a few more:
2. People don’t like to be marketed to. They like to have their problems solved.
3. Kipp’s Formula for Success (and I believe anything he says)
Get the basics right
Maximize content discovery
Create conversion ubiquity
Test and fail fast
Optimize for maximum leads
4. Ebooks and webinars rock.
5. You can get it done 15 minutes a day. (Okay, maybe I don’t believe everything he says.) But here goes:
5 minutes Twitter/Facebook
5 minutes LinkedIn answers/groups
5 minutes Google alerts
Remember, monitor, then spend time where it is working!
6. You must have a schedule for what you are going to publish.
7. You can never publish too much stuff if your content is good.
8. Make it clear what you want your reader to do. Make it clear if you stand six feet away from the computer.
a lot of good stuff in here
9. It’s important to have a rhythm to your posts.
10. The web compounds over time, just like a 401(k). The results are exponential. Keep at it.
So that was just Kipp’s presentation, and there were three following it, including great tips on legal, SEO, new tools, blogging and more. Another day, another post.
Here’s the crazy thing. My biggest takeaway from Day One of this large and impressive social media conference, called Social Crush, is such a simple thought:
Listen. And respond.
We already knew that, didn’t we? And yet how easy it is to forget.
It’s like going to a cocktail party and feeling out of place. You get a little nervous, and before you know it, to be charming and interesting, you start blabbering on and on and on about Every Little Thing You’ve Ever Done and the stranger in front of you nods mechanically and quickly makes a move for the cold hors d’oeuvres.
Listen.
Do you know who you are talking to? What do they care about?
And respond.
Where do your interests overlap? How can you make a connection?
We need more creative farmers, it's true
I made a note in my very fabulous We Need More Creative Farmers sketchbook, made ‘specially for me by my friend and former art director Larry Thacker. (I interviewed him when he was a young VCU grad just because I liked his name. Seriously.) Anyway, I made a note with a big ol’ star to remind me every time I find myself in social media the-toolbox-keeps-expanding overload: (whew) Just listen. And respond.
Here are the other Big Takeaways for me.
2. There’s a difference between being a social brand (one person’s job) and a social business (5 percent of everyone’s job). ~ Thanks Tim Moore
3. An advocate is someone who talks about your brand when you’re not listening. ~ Tim Moore, again
4. Offer real value. And use Farmer English. ~ Thanks Ty Downing
5. Follow local influencers. And wear great shoes. ~ Victoria Harres
6. Promote other people in ways that don’t benefit you. ~ Victoria, again
7. Humanize the brand. (There is so much to say about this! Another post, another day.) ~ Victoria
8. Inspect your audience, and your content, frequently. ~ Victoria
9. Work the phrase “That would be hot!” into my presentations/client conversations. (Oops. That was a note to myself. Just liked it. Tim? Ty? Skeeter? Kip? Not sure.)
10. There is no control in social media. There is only training. ~ Mike Brito
11. To coordinate your efforts, have a hub and spoke model. ~ Brito
12. The platform doesn’t matter. The content does. ~ Glen Gilmore
13. (on the future of social) Keep your eyes on the customer and understand their behaviors. You’ll be fine. ~ Brito
Looking forward to Day Two.
*Editor’s note: There was so much smartness flying so fast around the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center that some, or all, of the comment credits in this post may be wrong. The author accepts full responsibility for such matters and begs the forgiveness of any offended party. Particularly @glengilmore.
It’s intriguing to think about what makes a company or person innovative. In the business sector, asking too many questions can have negative overtones, yet a questioning nature is at the very heart of innovation.
Clay Christensen, a knight of the Harvard Business School and author of The Innovator’s Dilemma, is publishing a new study this month, The Innovator’s DNA. Co-written with Jeff Dyer and Hal Gregersen, the study is a trip inside the minds of successful innovators. A trip inside economist.com delivered a sneak peak at some insightful information.
Christensen et al detail five mind-based habits that characterize disruptive innovators: associating, questioning, observing, networking and experimenting. It turns out these same characteristics apply to companies as well.
Their study found innovative companies have high innovation premiums, a percentage calculated by looking at the proportion of their market value that cannot be accounted for by their current products. Case in point: Apple. During Steve Jobs’ first tenure, Apple’s innovation premium was 37%. Without him, it was -30%. Today, it’s at 52%.
The study notes innovative companies work hard to recruit creative people and they work equally hard at stimulating observation and questioning.
In today’s economy, innovation is at a premium. Companies who “get there first” or solve a consumer problem, win. It’s guaranteed other companies will follow, but someone always gets there first. More important, truly innovative companies don’t rest on their laurels if they are lucky enough to enjoy success.
Innovative people and companies are unstoppable. That doesn’t mean they won’t ever fail. It just means they’re smart enough to know the path to success is lined with failure.
Being innovative means being brave enough to fail. How brave are you?
There is a rising consciousness that we are all connected, one to another - human beings, nonprofits, small businesses, corporate America. This blog is devoted to the study of the intersection between people and the thoughtful brands with which they identify.
