Meanwhile, Coca-Cola does something beautiful. They turn their cans white for the World Wildlife Fund . This profound gesture reminds me why I love the business of branding. Amidst all the chaos, Coke’s Arctic Home campaign feels like a refuge. A company doing something good, just because it is a good hearted company.

Coke’s white can inspired our marketing strategy for our client Moe’s Southwest Grill. Moe’s is incredibly supportive of schools and children’s charities, and we’re working on ways to further deepen their support at a neighborhood level.

Moe’s reminds me that we have to continually raise the bar. They are constantly tweaking their menu. They were the first retailer in town with Coke’s incredible new Freestyle machine. Better training, improvements to the prep line, and monitoring measuring customer feedback all followed a discussion about marketing strategy.

As the economy continues to strain business, brands easily fall into a mentality of persistence spawned by risk avoidance. I would argue that today’s challenging business climate demands constant improvement and innovation. I invite you to share a Coke with a colleague and start exploring how you might change things for the better.

What is your writing utensil? How deep does your loyalty run?

Pete Anderson
I have no loyalty to any style, brand or color of writing implement. I’ll use whatever I can get my hands on and count it as a victory if I get through the day without losing it.

Ryon Edwards
for pen: Uniball Vision (fine point)
for brush/ink: Dr. Ph Martin’s Black Star HiCarb
for pencil: Staedtler Mechanical (.5) with B or 2B lead
Loyalty factor: 6/10
Do I win the most nerdiest answer prize?

Teresa Coles
Any one of my very fine Clemson pens. Go Tigers!

Kat White
At work: Sharpie fine point pens. At home: Pilot G-2.Always black ink, never blue. Pencils make me shudder. High-maintenance?

Julie Turner
Zip. Crayons, Sharpie markers and refrigerator magnets all make equally good words.

Kevin Smith
Blue felt tip.

The reason why I am explaining all of this is because I’m sitting here, three weeks after CreateAthon, trying to pinpoint what my greatest memory was. I’ve been staring at a blank computer screen trying to find the exact moments that have defined my experience and I’m starting to realize, I don’t think it’s possible. So much has gone into this, by so many that I don’t think it would be fair to the cause if I continued to try. In politics, there are so many ups and downs that it is easy to look back and point out the good. With CreateAthon, this isn’t possible. There is nothing but good and more good. There is a lot emotion attached to CreateAthon, but it’s all happiness and gratitude.

Riggs CreateAthon team 2011

National CreateAthon Week may have already passed, but it is not over for me. My job is to help it grow on the national level so that we can continue to bring in more agencies and nonprofits. I want this program to mean as much to our fellow and future agencies throughout North America, as it does to everyone here at Riggs Partners. Our 24 hours may have ended, but we still have three agencies left that are working hard to prepare for their CreateAthon. Be sure to cheer on Hypno Design, Flipside, and Trickey Jennus as they bring CreateAthon 2011 to an end and we’ll begin preparing for an incredible CreateAthon 2012.

– Jody Piland

What’s your go-to rainy day record?

Kevin Archie
Greetings from Michigan by Sufjan Stevens

Kevin Smith
Sugar Tax by OMD

Teresa Coles
Rain, by Patty Griffin, of course.

Ryon Edwards
It’s been The Cave Singers this week. Specifically the newest “No Witch” album. Refreshingly gritty.

Cathy Monetti
Live in Paris by Diana Krall

Julie Turner
Glee, Guster or anything else that starts with G apparently.

Kathryn White
The Creek Drank the Cradle by Iron and Wine

Your turn! Leave a comment and tell us what you like to listen to on a rainy day.

What’s your most memorable allnighter?

(In honor of CreateAthon 2011, happening here at Riggs as you read!)

Cathy Monetti
The 1992 C.C.Rigg’s Christmas Party at my house in Greenville. It was my
first social since giving birth five weeks earlier, and I do believe Tim
Burke, Jay Coles and I were standing in the driveway when the paperboy
delivered the newspaper the next morning.

Pete Anderson
The night before my senior thesis was due. The fatigue was nothing compared
to the sense of relief I felt upon completing a semester’s-worth of work!

Kevin Archie
When I was at the design program at USC, I distinctly remember the night before portfolio review day (aka Armageddon) because it was the end of my first “trial” year as a graphic designer, and I would soon find out if I could continue studying in the program. In other words, the rest of my life hinged on my ability to mount ten pieces of paper in a book. Fortunately, after spending the entire night cutting and pasting, I turned in my portfolio on time and found out the next afternoon that I was accepted to the program and would be “allowed” many more sleepless nights to come.

Kevin Smith
Determined to use my frequent flier miles, in the Paris airport, where hotels clearly insisted that every chair have arms.

Rebecca Jacobson
If I could remember that far back, my guess is it wouldn’t be something to
write about publicly!

Teresa Coles
The all-night ADPi house party at North Myrtle Beach during “first week”
after my freshman year. I left the beach house at o-dark-thirty, snuck into
my parent’s house for a shower without being seen, and went straight to a
job interview with a local bank. Then back to the beach in time to lay out
at 11:00 am!

Kathryn White
I’ve pulled more allnighters in my life than I’d ever care for my mother or doctor to know. Most memorable: the time I did two in a row — when after staying up all night to write papers, a boy kidnapped me the next night for a spontaneous trip to a legendary 24-hour restaurant several hours away. I still think that four a.m. “dinner” was worth it.

Ryon Edwards
Probably shouldn’t answer that question. My Mom reads our blog occasionally.

2011 shirts designed by Maria Fabrizio.

We’ve been counting down for weeks, but it’s finally here: CreateAthon week. This Thursday, we’ll roll up our sleeves, ingest a little too much caffeine, and get creative for ten deserving nonprofits who inspired us this year. As you can see, CreateAthon season is a little like Christmas for some of us.

Here’s the 2011 roster of the nonprofit organizations we selected for CreateAthon this year.

Youth Corps

Vital Connections

Columbia MSA Talent Dividend

Congaree Land Trust

Walker Foundation/SC School for the Deaf and Blind

PASOs

Mental Illness Recovery Center (MIRCI)

Haiti Orphan Foundation

Kershaw County Literacy Association

Memory Matters

Wanna see the magic happen? Follow us on Twitter and stop by the blog. We’ll be dropping in to update during our 24 hours of creative goodness.

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.

I came across one nonprofit’s web site that did a remarkable job at showing their results. The Blood Connection, located in Greenville, South Carolina, has incorporated a “Who You Help” section on the front page of their web site. When you click on it you are shown stories from seven different people whose lives were changed by The Blood Connection.

This is an easy way to ignite donor interests. This form of showing is such a simple concept that it is often overlooked. You can also spark just as much attention by adding videos or pictures to illustrate the good that your nonprofit has accomplished. When you show, instead of tell, what your nonprofit has achieved, your statistics become human, not just a number.

–Jody Courtney

What is your latest obsession?

Pete Anderson
Authentic retro MLB batting practice jerseys

Cathy Monetti
Looking for fun. http://cathymonetti.blogspot.com/

Kathryn White
Friday Night Lights, on Netflix. Yes, I know I’m a couple years behind on this one. But this show is so much bigger than high school football. Bigger than Texas, even. And I feel quite validated to learn that literary greats like Lorrie Moore have been just as obsessed as I. Clear eyes. Full hearts.

Ryon Edwards
spotify.com

Yanti Pepper
HBO’s True Blood

Kevin Smith
I recently got a big green egg: http://www.biggreenegg.com/. So I’m all about grilling everything.

Maria Fabrizio
http://tatt.ly/

Julie Turner
Survival. http://scwordsmith.com/

Teresa Coles
Reading Ann Patchett books. Bel Canto should be on everyone’s list.

Modern branding still reflects this premise. Recent work for Subaru ends with the one word concept: love. BMW owns a different space with the idea of joy. Nonprofits would be smart to follow suit, yet so few do.

Most nonprofits deal with complex causes about which they are passionate. As a result, the products and services they offer tend to grow via offshoot and initiative. With most, a once core service has grown to a bundle of services. The same applies to fundraising initiatives. This renders multi-layered ambiguous communication.

In an economy that presents greater need than ever, and a shrinking donor base, consider the power of singularity. Being known for doing one thing done amazingly well is far better than generating general awareness of five less remarkable feats, and far more memorable.

I’m not suggesting that you overhaul operational programs or fundraising basics. I do urge nonprofits to look to their organization’s roots when considering external communications. Then deliver a singular brand message. Given continued economic chaos, people simply can’t absorb much more.