Street Teams and Mobile Tours are great vehicles to help activate a charitable sponsorship, leverage volunteers or give back to the community. Check out how to incorporate a charitable focus with your next program.
http://w
ww.promotion1.com/blog/bid/68249/Tips-to-Add-a-Charitable-Focus-to-Your-Experiential-Marketing-Program
Marketers will always find new ways to reach their consumers. However, there is a difference between reaching a consumer and having an impact on them. Check out why face to face marketing has a greater impact on your consumer.
http://www.promotion1.com/blog/bid/63350/Why-Face-to-Face-Street-Team-Marketing
If you work as a Brand Ambassador or if you want to know what working in the promotional industry is all about this is a must read. A lot of people think anyone can walk around and hand out free stuff and they are right. The “X” Factor, if you will, is your ability to interact and excite.
Check out my latest blog and find out if you have what it takes!
http://www.promotion1.com/blog/bid/59775/Tips-to-Becoming-a-Better-Brand-Ambassador
Working at Pro Motion, Inc. is allowing me to gain a ton of experience in an exciting field. I am currently the Project Manager for the Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Summer Sampling Program. If you follow me anywhere online you have seen pictures of my team handing out free samples.
Taking Sampling Programs to Retail is a great way to reach your consumers right at the point of sale.
Read more about taking Sampling Programs to Retail here:
http://www.promotion1.com/blog/bid/59251/7-Tips-to-Activate-Your-Sampling-Program-at-Retail
Jay Baer’s new book, “The Now Revolution”, talks about the need to become faster, smarter, and more social. It is a great read and I recommend it.
In my opinion there are 3 simple ways to get more involved or as Jay puts it, “More Social”. A lot of companies make the mistake of simply creating a profile on every platform and then they do nothing. Personally, I think companies are too worried about their number of followers. They should be worried about the impact they have. Your social presence is more than just a click of the “Like” button.
Step 1 – Listen
No this is not the first time you have heard this; it is important though. You need to know what your customers are saying. Don’t create a Twitter account and immediately start talking. The reason social media is important for business today is because customers now can personally interact and impact your success. So listen to what is being said about your product or service.
Step 2 – Help
Another big mistake is to constantly send out sales pitches; all that will do is cause people to stop following you. For instance @GoGreenClean started following me on Twitter a while back. They are a green house cleaning service. Seemed like a good idea so I followed them. The only things they ever posted were sales promotions or a sales pitches. Everyday the same tweets went out and I finally unfollowed them. It is annoying so don’t do it. We all know businesses are “social” because they want to increase sales, but you don’t have to scream it at someone. Talk to people in your community. Help them out with things even if they aren’t related to work. Talk to people about your favorite sports teams. Help them in any and every way possible. If you want to throw in a sales pitch or a tweet to promote your company you can; just be sure to follow it with at least 10 non-sales tweets after.
Step 3 – Be Social Together
Your company most likely has more than one employee. That means there should be several people listening and helping. Have a plan and make sure everyone knows it. Social media is all about interacting. The more people you have helping the more people you reach.
I was researching the 2011 expansion of Sun Drop and their nationwide distribution campaign when I ran across MTV Scratch. MTV has been incredibly active in the youth branding market for years. They have a niche for reaching buyers and now they have put together a creative team to further utilize their skills. Now I understand that I am very late with this blog; MTV Scratch has been around since September 2010. They are a full service group with endless amounts of insights. Not only do they have access to millions of young viewers but they have the history with celebrities and again they already spend a lot of time coming up with new ways to reach their viewers.
To kill two birds, I am now going to transition this to Sun Drop…
Dr. Pepper Snapple Group made an agreement with Scratch in an attempt to assist in the distribution of Sun Drop nationwide. Scratch has assisted with the design of the new can, advertising and branding, and Sun Drop can be found on the MTV reality show, “The Real World”. DPSG Updated the Sun Drop web site and also became more active on social networks. I am sure by now you have all seen the Sun Drop commercial.
I am interested with MTV’s idea to launch a full service creative group and I think the efforts made by Sun Drop are being heard loud and clear right now. Well done to both companies.
This was me throwing my quick thoughts out there. Anyone have any more information on MTV Scratch or thoughts about the Sun Drop Commercials?
When you look at rebranding you have to take a lot into consideration. What does the brand mean to the people who identify by it? What is the history of the brand? Does the brand send out the right message? When you look at branding in sports, the connection between that brand and the community is even greater. Here in St Louis, Missouri, people identify with the birds on the bat. It has a story, a history. Changing or rebranding the St. Louis Cardinals would be difficult and painful for most.
Arizona State University and Nike decided it was time to rebrand. Lisa Love, ASU’s vice president for athletics decided when she came to Tempe, AZ that there was no consistency with the uniforms and colors throughout their athletics. Consistency with a brand throughout all outlets is very important so they decided it was time for a change. ASU went to NIKE to springboard this effort. Arizona State University has over 58,000 students on its campus, the largest in the country. NIKE and ASU saw that as a big new merchandising opportunity.
So why is this change so accepted and anticipated?
NIKE and ASU were devoted to maintaining the rich traditions that the current brand had acquired. They went to the fans, the students, the players, and alumni and asked for their input. The result of many focus groups was a greater feel of involvement to the change. They generated the excitement and on April 12th they seized the anticipation by releasing the new brand.
NIKE and ASU created a custom Sun Devil font; they created the new pitchfork logo, and they brought back the color black to uniforms and football helmets. The font is meant to represent the horns of the former “Sparky” logo; it is exclusive to ASU. Bringing back black is something that hasn’t been used since the 50s and was a huge request. Finally, the pitchfork will be consistent throughout all ASU athletics.
The rebranding was bold. It was considerate and personal. NIKE and ASU took the appropriate time and effort to avoid a disaster. This was rebranding done right.
Failure means what you want it to mean.
Ask yourself three questions:
Was I prepared?
Was I committed?
Did I put forth my best effort?
Baseball players view greatness as the ability to succeed at the plate 3 out of 10 times. That means 7 times they “fail” acceptingly. Failure can be your motivation. It can be what drives you to be better. Baseball players don’t quit after going hitless in a game. They get hungry. They spend hours hitting off of a tee because failure fuels them. It is easy to stay positive when you have success, but how do you act when faced with adversity?
Failure means what you want it to mean.
After you receive an unfavorable outcome…”failure”… ask yourself:
What can I learn from this?
There are no failures – just experiences and your reactions to them.
Look back at your experiences, good or bad and find ways to improve. Make adjustments in your life but never excuses. Be accountable for the outcomes you are presented and be confident in the path you took to get there. Motivate yourself every day to take risks. Never be afraid to fail; failure can be what makes you great.
Failure means what you want it to mean. Why not make it mean greatness?
It’s late February. It’s 1 AM on what is now Monday morning and I am fighting to keep my eyes open. I am uncomfortable and my legs are getting restless. I have a dim light on above me that will not stop flickering on and off, which is making it very hard to read. I want to go to bed but I can’t. I have a test in 7 hours and this charter bus has now become my library.
I am a student-athlete.
Even though I graduated, that is something I will always be.
I would have loved to sit inside Starbucks and sip my coffee and prepare for my next test but my life-style didn’t allow me to. Playing baseball in the Northeast involved a lot of travel; don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I wouldn’t trade my experiences for the world. The athlete side of all this was my passion. I loved the competition. I loved the grind of an off-season. The student side was the challenge that some people don’t really understand because the media causes a lot of people to think athletes get some kind of “special treatment”. I can’t speak on behalf of every school but I know that most follow an education first policy. It’s safe to say that those athletes who may be getting “special treatment” are a minority and in Buffalo, NY, as a baseball player, teachers could care less who I was.
There were deadlines that had to be met and projects that had to get finished just like every other student. Tests never got rescheduled and my hand never got held through any of this process. Some athletes didn’t care about school and they found ways to get by. For the athletes that did care, the stress of a school year is something that we will never forget. It helped me in so many ways; looking back now, I am better for all my experiences. I developed skills that are helping my transition into my career.
Accountability. Time management. Leadership. Teamwork. Organization. Passion. Competitive. Motivation. Communication.
I grew up a lot during my 4 years of being a student-athlete. My experiences go hand in hand as I face the “real world” today. Do I feel a TRUE student-athlete has an edge over other prospective employees and recent graduates? Yes, I do. Understand though, that when I say a true student-athlete, I mean the one who pushed themselves athletically and academically. I am talking about the one who never took shortcuts and always gave 100 percent. That student-athlete is the one who takes initiative and gets remembered.
You can’t find us everywhere.
Every time I see this commercial I get excited. Nike always finds a way to capture a TV viewers attention. They flirted with the lines of inappropriate with Tiger Woods and they added heat to the Lebron James controversy. They make you want to watch and most importantly they make you want to talk about it after.
This commercial is just so cool. I had to post it.
Your thoughts?
