The event, held at The Duce, an industrial open space in downtown Phoenix, recognized the blood, sweat, and tears we put into our award-winning pieces for Girl Scouts, Goodwill, and the Bruce T. Halle Family Foundation. Here’s a closer look at the work itself and how it’s meant to help these organizations accomplish their main mission. Doing good within the community.

The first honor bestowed upon us was a Silver ADDY for our “It’s a Girl’s World” brochure for Girl Scouts-Arizona Cactus-Pine Council. This colorful piece of collateral designed around this unique rallying cry uses photos of girls full of potential, along with fun illustrations to depict these kids’ place in the world. Not really where they currently reside, but the beautiful places they, and all of us, could very well be headed, thanks to Girl Scouts.

Our “An Ill-Fitting Halloween” TV commercial for Goodwill of Central Arizona secured our second Silver ADDY of the night. With October as the most important month of the year in the thrift agency, Goodwill wanted us to position their stores as “the place” to shop for all your Halloween costume needs. So we did just that, thanks to a man in a chicken suit. In the end, the purchases this commercial generated didn’t just mean a happy Halloween for the shopper. They meant funds Goodwill could use to help overcome Arizona’s scary unemployment rate.

The last award we received was yet another Silver ADDY, this time, for the Bruce T. Halle Family Foundation. Our “Don’t Look Away” postcard series was created to encourage people not to turn their back on those in need. Each card features someone who’s overcome obstacles to make something of themselves, and each holder of the card is asked to pass it along to generate awareness for those facing similar plights. The end objective for the foundation is to get individuals within various enterprises and agencies to recognize the problems presented on the postcards. Then, work together to provide the assistance needed, which will eventually help us all.

Although these awards were greatly appreciated, at the end of the day, we at Park&Co don’t really judge our success by the chunks of metal in our trophy case. We measure our accomplishments by the glimmers of hope we instill in people’s lives.

This may all sound pretty sappy, but hey, what can we say. We’re still celebrating.

Cheers.

In celebration of our expanding social media department, we’re creating a series of social media anecdotes for you, our devoted readers.

And, like any good story, we’re starting at the beginning—the place where many find themselves when starting to sort through the social media clutter. Everyone knows the top social media channels—unless you’ve been on a deserted island the last few years—and everyone knows that, as a business, you need to join the conversation. (Actually, even if you were on a deserted island, you and the palm tree probably had a Facebook profile.)

Needless to say, we know social media is a must-do. But that isn’t reason enough to drop everything and start building a profile here and a RSS feed there. There are a few things you should do first before creating your social channels:

• Clarify your overarching business objectives—not social media goals, but business goals
• With your goals in mind, craft a clear story for your audience
• Listen to social media channels to see where your story fits and determine the right platforms to use

We’ll be discussing these topics further as part of our ongoing social media series.

If you take away one thing from this newsletter and this series, it’s to be sure not to jump the gun. Don’t create multiple accounts and profiles without doing your due diligence. We’re not saying it’s not good to learn by doing. It is. Just don’t drag your brand along with you. Instead, create a test account—a personal or dummy account—to learn the nuts and bolts of a platform first. You want to have a strategy firmly in place before letting your brand wade into the deep, dark waters of social media.

Next post, we’ll tackle goals and stories as they relate to your social media marketing.

This year, Park&Co puts Goodwill at the epicenter of fall fun and creativity with the “Official Sponsor of Halloween” campaign. The fun and anticipation of dressing up comes not from what we can purchase off the rack, but from what we can invent with our imagination. Goodwill is much more than a place to simply buy a costume; it’s a place to discover a hundred possibilities for creating one. The elements of this campaign consist of TV, radio, print, outdoor and online executions, all depicting one simple message: most ready-made, ill-fitting, store-bought costumes are so lame, it’s almost frightening—and not in a Halloween sort of way.

The concept of the Goodwill Halloween campaign allowed us to take advantage of the creative surroundings here at Park&Co, lovingly called our “Creative Campus.” We transformed our offices into a studio for the all-day TV shoot. Our staff willingly served as extras, dressing in everything from chicken costumes to rodeo chaps. We built a “dressing room” for our main talent in the Creative Garage and held a photo shoot in our very own Combustible Kitchen. While this may seem unconventional, it made the campaign that much better as it was truly an all-agency effort.

And now that Goodwill has a whole new look for Halloween, what about you? What are you going out as this year? Better head to the Official Sponsor of Halloween pronto before someone snatches that green mohair suit before you do.

Over 3,500 entrepreneurs had flown from more than 140 countries, most arriving the night before. They gathered in the ballroom of the Gaylord National Resort in Washington DC for Forever Living Products’ annual International Super Rally. The three day event of awards, company announcements, new product launches, and distributor recognition was kicked off by my training. No pressure.

The Power of Story Part I: “How Stories Sell” from ParkHowell.com on Vimeo.

The storytelling training was presented in two parts. We first explored the nine essential beats that make up the structure of every great story. Do you know them?

1. Who’s your hero?
2. What’s at stake?
3. The inciting incident.
4. Obstacles & antagonists.
5. The sidekick and/or love story.
6. All is lost.
7. Victory!
8. Anchor your audience.
9. To be continued… (Your sequel)

Storytelling workbooks were handed out to what’s essentially the United Nations of network marketing. Forever Living is the world’s largest grower, manufacturer and distributor of aloe vera-based health and beauty products; a $2.5 billion operation with millions of Horatio Alger stories. Our job was to help these distributors bring their unique experiences to life… in three minutes or LESS.

Using the workbooks, the audience outlined their stories as the training progressed.  Some of the Forever faithful even found the gumption to come on stage and share their journeys to demonstrate the power of well-told tales. You can view an abridged version of the presentation on SlideShare.

Where you tell your story is as important as how you tell it.

The second part of my Power of Story training explored ways to share your stories with the world using social media. We discussed how your blog becomes mission control for your social media universe, and how six primary online communities work as both utility and outreach channels. I’m using the utility channels of Vimeo (I prefer it over YouTube), SlideShare and Flickr to embed and share video, PowerPoint and photos respectively through this blog.

We then covered how to push or broadcast your blog content out through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. You can connect with me by clicking on any or all of these links and see how I’ve used them to promote this article. I’ll go into greater detail on the social media portion of storytelling in my next post.

After nearly two hours on stage in front of these engaged and delightful distributors (The presentation was simultaneously translated into 10 languages and was also webcasted), my character arched from a chrysalis of nerves to an unbridled enthusiast for The Power of Story. It was affirming to watch business men and women from every imaginable metroplex and distant outpost on our planet embrace the universal form of narrative that propels our individual stories forward.

I am extremely grateful for the opportunity to share my thoughts on storytelling with this world-class audience, and I hope you found it as rewarding as I did.

Thank you.

Is fear losing its grip?

I recently attended the Sustainable Brands Conference in Monterrey, CA, and the one theme that dominated the three-day event was the concept of having fun. Optimism and a youthful sense of silliness were a close second and third. Big brands were everywhere, including Coca-Cola, Kimberley Clarke, SAP, Nike, Adidas, HP, and Park&Co. Did I mention that wild-eyed optimism was also abundant?

What large and small brands are finding is that consumers are so tired of feeling a lack of control with world events — what, with the collapse of Wall Street, spastic oil prices, never-ending Middle East conflicts and global warming — that they’re intensely focused on what they CAN control: their lives. Trust has vanished for authority figures and large organizations, and that includes anyone trying to sell them something.

The consumer has a greater voice now than ever before. And they’re using it. Look no further than the relatively peaceful revolutions in the Middle East sparked through the use of social media. Consumers are giving the finger to status quo, and they are redefining the rules. Fear, in many respects, is losing its relevance. You can see it reflected in sentiments like this one from a young Nike wearer: “I’ve been living in code orange since I was 14. Give me a break.”

“I’ve been living in code orange since I was 14. Give me a break.”

The first rule of this new game is to find fun ways to involve your customers as you make an honest, concerted effort to better their world.

Dave Cobban, Nike’s Mobilization Director, presented a study showing how their young adult markets were emphatic about wanting a better world and implored Nike to help them create it in part through their products. Nike has responded.

Volkswagen’s “Fun Theory” was center stage, demonstrating how they crowdsource their customers to come up with the most engaging ideas to affect positive behavior change. I was fortunate to spend time with Kevin Richardson, this year’s winner of the Fun Theory contest with his “Speed Camera Lottery” concept. The stunt turned the negative loop of punishing speeders with tickets and fines into a positive loop of rewarding drivers who obey the speed limit. (You can read more of the story here.)

Pay what you want

 Taking consumer empowerment to a seemingly absurd  new level, Panera Bread founder Ron Shaich introduced the Sustainable Brands crowd to the backward business model of letting people pay what they want at his restaurants. This “Take what you need, pay what you can” concept is based on the belief that people are generally good. Those who truly can’t afford a meal pay little to nothing. Those who can voluntarily pay their fair share and then some.

Gaming the system

No matter what you might think of the time-suck apparatus called “Farmville” or it’s hipper cousin “Angry Birds,” they are testaments to gamifying consumer engagement and making it fun. Civilization has been playing games as long as its been telling stories. Marketers are beginning to make cheat sheets on how to master this new trend of customer engagement. According to Gabe Zichermann, author of Game-Based Marketing, Inspire customer loyalty through rewards, challenges and contests, “Games are becoming the new mass media eating up the oxygen of engagement.”

“Games are becoming the new mass media eating up the oxygen of engagement.”

Games are so prevalent that sometimes you’re caught up in one and don’t even know you’re playing. This happened to me the other day during Safeway’s prostate cancer drive. That’s right. Your gorcer is trying to make prostate cancer fun, or at least raising money for it. Zichermann’s rules of engagement were being played out both with the customers and the checkers who were responsible to keep the action moving. Like Safeway, brands you wouldn’t normally think of as fun and frolicking, including Wells Fargo and AT&T,  are adopting games to motivate employees and retain customers.

Michael Kim, a Harvard/Yale educated technologist, recently left his post as Microsoft’s director of XBox Live to create Kairos Labs and pursue his mission of helping people build positive habits through online games. His first venture, Livn.it, makes it fun to grow sustainable daily habits essential to living a better life. You compete with friends on Facebook to keep pace with the promises you’ve made yourself to lead a happier, healthier life.

Time and again throughout the week at SB11, the story of having fun with your customers ran through nearly every presentation. They had us playing kickball in the foyer during breaks. And Specialized Bikes’ First Gear program gave away a dozen two-wheelers to the local Boys & Girls Club following its presentation, “A Hands on Experience with Brand Activation for Good.”

Finally, the winner of the Sustainable Brands Innovation Open was One World Futbol and its indestructible soccer ball that provides children in developing nations a ball that simply won’t deflate.

So all of these wonderful and disparate people, products, companies and causes got me thinking: are we doing all we can to inject fun and customer engagement into the brands we represent? If you’re a marketing partner at Park&Co, then you know all of this new inspiration is coursing through our creative veins right now, and it’s only a matter of time until we bring this even more refreshing brand of marketing fun to you and your enterprise.

Ready to play?

I have a confession to make. I don’t know jack about Google+.

It may be the fastest growing social network of all time and further evidence that Google will one day control literally everything I do, but right now it holds about as much fascination for me as the latest social app featured on TechCrunch.

But the thing is, at some point I’ll have to start caring about Google+. And I’ll have to learn fast. Why? Because there are segments of my clients’ audiences that do care about Google+. And if they care, I need to care.

This is the new reality for agency creatives. As emerging media continues to emerge and communication channels multiply faster than self-serve yogurt shops, staying on top of the latest developments in digital, mobile, social media and game marketing is something we just have to do.

Does this mean that art directors and writers need to become “social media gurus” and commit Facebook’s latest photo tagging guidelines to memory? Is Mashable suddenly the new Communication Arts?

Of course not.

As always, creatives need to focus on the message first, then the medium. We need to stick to our creative guns and remember that words, images, ideas, emotions, humor and storytelling are as important today as they ever were—if not more important. Let’s keep making great ads when called upon. But let’s also learn how to captivate in 140 characters or less.

So if dipping your creative toe into new media waters still makes you uncomfortable, stop fighting it and jump right in. Splash around a little. Wear your floaties proudly. But start to follow and be followed.

After the initial jolt, I think you’ll agree; the water’s just fine.

What started as a silly game to keep track of the places your friends frequent around town has quickly turned into a multi-billion dollar industry. According to Pyramid Research, it’s expected that in 2015, global location-based marketing services will be worth $6.2 billion, which is about 35% of total mobile advertising revenue.

All you mom-and-pop shops take note of what the big boys have already discovered: taking advantage of these free services can add value and top-of-mind brand awareness for your customers whenever they step foot in or around your establishment. To turn awareness into longer-term relationships, however, these mobile apps need to be incentivized. Find out who’s visiting and what they’re interested in, then use that input to design offers and events that might bring them back. Include these new customers in your other marketing efforts and invite them to sign up for your email newsletter or join your Facebook page.

There’s a certain excitement when social media takes to the streets. People aren’t simply blogging away while holed up in their bedroom anymore. GPS-enabled smart phones have allowed anyone to become a mobile marketer. While location-based social media adds another dimension to pure social networking, business owners should keep in mind that giving back via points, specials, deals and upgrade services can help their businesses exponentially in the long run, especially if coupled with some good old-fashioned positive word-of-mouth from happy, satisfied customers.

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. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE 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.

Now, doesn’t that smell nice.

The thought was to enlist 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.)

We requested that the musicians base their lyrics on content found at our website, parkandco.com. 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. And now we get to share it all with you. Just call us and ask to be put on hold.

Here’s how our web designer, Joe di Stefano, described the creative approach:

“Environmental sustainability is just one facet of Resolution Copper’s sustainable approach. They focus on five main aspects of sustainability: environment, community, safety, workforce, and socio-economic. The look and feel of the entire site all grew out of the design of the “sustainability wheel,” a visual device we used on the homepage to illustrate RCM’s holistic approach to sustainability.

To enhance the report and create a more engaging experience, we incorporated a wide variety of media. Throughout the site, you’ll find photos, maps, animated graphics, slideshows and video. The videos in particular show how sustainability at RCM is about more than adhering to standards or the ever-changing rubric of ‘being green,’ it’s about bettering people’s lives and contributing to the community you belong to.”

Tactically, RCM was looking to:

1. Enhance the overall look of the report online. Within the resolutioncopper.com website, the real estate available for a unique page design, content and graphics was very restrictive. We lobbied to have the entire 2010 Sustainable Development (SD) Report reside on a separate site, allowing for a wider range of color and content options.
2. Tell their sustainable stories in a more engaging way. Many of RCM’s accomplishments over the year directly impacted the environment and area residents. Words on a webpage didn’t do these stories justice, so we crafted videos, slide shows and animated charts to bring them to life.
3. Make it easy for viewers to find information. Previous SD Reports on resolutioncopper.com had countless layers with multiple portals to access similar information. Navigating the site or simply locating a specific topic of interest was challenging. By utilizing a separate site for the 2010 SD Report, we were able to build a design that provided easier navigation, faster information gathering and on-page prompts for activating videos and slideshows.

Explore RCM’s 2010 Sustainable Development Report, and see if it doesn’t do as much for your interest level as it does for the community, the economy and the environment.