Poop Happens

The write up in last week’s Denver Business Journal says it all. I’ve never been so proud while laughing so hard, so I have to share…

AND NOW, FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT: Speaking of disgusting things, how ‘bout that “Animal Grossology” exhibit in Parker at The Wildlife Experience, way south of Denver, where South Peoria Street meets Lincoln Avenue — and the farther away, the better.

“I have a nephew who is 12, and he thought it was AWESOME!” says Amy Moynihan of GroundFloor Media, which landed this prestigious account. Animal Grossology features a number of interactive and hands-on exhibits, “and you can dissect owl pellets [in animated form], and there’s a big cow that demonstrates how their digestive systems work. There’s lots of game stations, so you can make slime and fake poop.”

School and children’s groups have toured the exhibit, and there are educators and volunteers present to help. More fun facts to be gleaned: A dung beetle can roll dung 50 times its weight, which rivals any politician. Also, cows are the gassiest animals on Earth, which also defies belief as we’re assaulted by political commercials this fall.

When the Gold Pick Awards come around next fall, someone oughta nominate GroundFloor Media for:

• Headline of the Year: “Animal Grossology Exhibit Lands at the Wildlife Experience Featuring Pooper Scoopers, Blood Suckers, Vomit Munchers, Slime Makers and More!”

• Company President Quote of the Year: “Snail slime and the dung beetle, otherwise known as ‘nature’s pooper scooper,’ definitely qualify as unique story angles!” says Laura Love in a GroundFloor Media news release.

The exhibit runs through April 26, with hours of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. It’s closed Mondays, and we’re guessing that’s when someone places a giant fumigation tent over the building and has at it. Info: www.thewildlifeexperience.org or 720-488-3300, if tiny bugs haven’t burrowed their way into your cellphone.

Fuse Me

In this insane world of PR, we’re constantly juggling multiple conversations with colleagues, reporters, clients and even our clients’ customers. In this age of instant connectivity, that usually means an inordinate amount of e-mails, Facebook wall posts and tweets. Maintaining these online conversations can be challenging, even overwhelming at times. I’ve tried adhering to the principles of Inbox Zero or GTD, but truth be told, the only time I clear out my inboxes is when I’m on a transatlantic flight. And usually, I just want to sleep or watch a few really bad movies with subtitles.

Enter Fuser.com. Fuser.com is an online tool that lets you to check your e-mail and social networking accounts (Facebook, Myspace and Twitter) in one secure place, so you don’t have to log into tons of different Web sites each day. Once you’ve registered your accounts you’ll get your messages delivered to one online inbox that you can access from any Internet connection. You can reply, send, forward – basically do all the things you’re used to doing already – from within Fuser.com. It’s free and you don’t have to download or install a program to use it, so you can access it easily from work or home.

Now, for the disclaimer… we began working with Fuser last year when they unveiled the initial version of Fuser.com. As one of the first companies to offer Internet users a way to avoid “inbox overload” while also helping them increase their connectivity, it was easy to understand why people instantly starting using it. Earlier this month, Fuser unveiled a new version of Fuser.com that is 40% faster, offers a completely new user interface and a slew of more message management features. Once again, the response has been great and we’re excited to be part of the Fuser.com fan club.

Fuser also has a cool viral marketing campaign going on that includes a microsite with some pretty hilarious videos and emails. You can see it at http://www.nevermissamessage.com/ (as in, “with Fuser.com, you’ll never miss an important message again). Here’s an example of what may happen to you if you miss a message:

Religion, Politics and Burritos

Two topics we’ve all been taught to avoid in business meetings and casual conversations are religion and politics. But when GroundFloor Media looked for a way for Qdoba Mexican Grill to enter the world of social media, we decided to enter a conversation already taking place, rather than trying to create a new one. And what better topic to enter than one about the upcoming election?

That’s how TasteBudPolitics.com was born, and nearly 100,000 unique visits later, it seems to be a great strategy. Qdoba’s campaign is a nonpartisan look at 1) how Mexican foods describe people’s personalities – or Q-dentities – and 2) which candidates and issues are important to those people who take the personality quiz.

Personally, I find it fascinating how closely the national Taste Bud Politics results have tracked with national voter polls. And I find it extremely interesting that the only Q-dentity that supports John McCain more than Barack Obama on the national front is the “chips & salsa” group and that, based on analysis conducted by Dr. Alan Hirsch, director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, Mc Cain is a chips & salsa personality. There are a couple of great articles about consumer product marketing campaigns that are playing on the election; if you’re interested see Joy Davis’ article in the Rocky Mountain News (http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/oct/25/companies-rev-up-ballot-games/) and Mike Beirne’s article in Adweek (http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/esearch/e3i6d1955ff988810b8dcab2f3399bcf90e).

No matter your Q-dentity or your political party, I urge you to get out and vote! In Colorado, you can vote early in a variety of locations through Friday. To find your early voting polling place, contact your County Election Officials (http://www.elections.colorado.gov/DDefault.aspx?tid=147).

Child Abuse is Not to be Ignored

A cause that is very near and dear to my heart is hosting its annual fundraiser event tomorrow evening. Like many people that get involved on a board level of a non profit, it is often easy to lose sight of the real issues at hand. Instead, we get caught up in the development plans and the lack of available grant money, HR issues, event logistics, and other areas that while absolutely necessary for the viability of an organization, are often a far cry from the real social issue at hand.

The Tennyson Center for Children (www.childabuse.org) is an unbelievable organization. It is Colorado’s leading residential and day treatment facilities, serving the most abused and neglected children ages 5 to 14. Why is this so important?

You may not know that Colorado has the ninth highest rate of children living in poverty and Colorado experienced the nation’s fastest rate of growth among impoverished children from 2000 to 2006, according to a recent study. Clearly, children in our state are not getting a fair shake – and the results can be downright devastating. Since 2001, the number of child abuse reports has risen by more than 60 percent in our state – yet the number of child caseworkers has only increased by 8 percent. Almost half of the child abuse reports made in Colorado in 2007 did not have the proper follow-up because our system is by all accounts over-burdened. Colorado continues to investigate 13 child deaths statewide that were reported cases of child abuse that “fell through the cracks.”

This haunts me. As a parent, I can only try in some way to understand the devastation these children must feel. What we do at Tennyson Center is to attempt to save these children from this dark place. We provide them -- most often for the first time -- unconditional love. We give them back their hopes and dreams. We try and become the stepping-stones to a life where again they can trust and love adults.

Board reports matter very little in the grand scheme of things. Don’t they?

How many boxes do you have?

Seth Godin is truly genius. And it’s not just because he says I don’t have to be perfect to succeed. The man just gets it. His recent post “Do you have 16 boxes?” http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/10/do-you-have-16.html puts it all in perspective. We can all sit around and focus on the failing economy and how the next 18 months are going to smell of the new-age-greater-depression or we can look at what’s happening around us and realize that good still exists – in our companies and in our personal lives. If you have built a strong foundation for your business, this economy simply cannot bring it to a screeching halt. Godin mentions that when something is going wrong, when the economy is out of sync, we panic. We obsess about just one of the sixteen boxes and ignore the others. We talk ourselves into hysteria about how, "none of our customers have any money," or, “in this bleak economy, we'll never make a sale." Instead of building up the other 15 boxes, we sit in the corner, worrying about that one box that's completely out of whack.

So let’s all focus on the 15 boxes that really, really work in our businesses and cut the conversation about things that are quite simply beyond our immediate control. Boxes are so much nicer that way.

Cause-related marketing still works, even if this economy doesn’t

With the Dow closing down 400 points today, its good to know that some things are still working. The 2008 Cone Cause Evolution Study, just released by Cone and Duke University http://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/index.php/2008/10/17/cause-related-marketing-still-works-study-shows/#more-462 showed that, once again, consumers feel that if everything is equal, they would switch from one brand to another if the other brand is associated with a good cause. The study also shows consumers spent nearly twice as much time looking at cause-related ads compared to generic ads and that the cause, the nonprofit organization associated with it, and the product itself are all important factors in the purchase decision.


So for those working to maintain their company’s cause-related marketing programs, the study shows that the causes Americans care most about include:

Education 80%
Economic development (job creation, income generation) 80%
Health and disease 79%
Access to clean water 79%
Environment 77%
Disaster relief 77%
Hunger 77%

GroundFloor Media clients including Qdoba Mexican Grill, Morton’s The Steakhouse, and Bellco Credit Union, are shining examples of how, when times get tough, they still embrace programs that support causes that matter to their employees, customers and key stakeholders. Now that is something to smile about as the closing bell rings.

Acting Smart by Acting Small

I just have a few minutes this morning, but I’d like to point people to Seth Godin’s recent blog post about acting small -- because it just makes so much sense, especially during these challenging economic times. As he explains it, “A small acting bank would never have invested in tens of thousands of loans that they hadn't looked at. And a small acting startup wouldn't hire dozens of people before they had a business model...” Check out the entire post at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/. It’s worth a few minutes of your time today!

~Ramonna

A Fan of Roadless Forests

Growing up in Oklahoma, I didn't really appreciate a good forest. Well, probably because the only forest was the one that my dad created when he forgot to trim the shrubs in our backyard. However, since moving to Colorado nearly a decade ago, I have grown to appreciate the roadless forests. They safeguard our watersheds, protect wildlife habitat, and allow us to hunt (even though I am not a personal fan), fish, camp, and hike. As you may have heard, the current administration is moving forward with an 11th hour attempt to open Colorado’s roadless forests to drilling, mining, logging and road building. We have until Oct. 24 to make comments.

Please take a minute and email U.S. Forest Chief Gail Kimbell and ask her to stop the roll back of the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule and support the strong protections it guarantees for Colorado’s roadless forests.

http://www.environmentcolorado.org/action/preservation/protect-our-forests?id4=ES

It takes less than a minute and is well worth every second!

Tough Times Call for Strategic Measures

It’s hard to turn around today without hearing news about the economy, and companies large and small are taking precautions to ensure they weather the storm. We’re no different – tightening our belts a bit more than usual and examining each expense to make sure it’s necessary right now.

When it comes to communication strategy, we practice what we preach at GroundFloor Media. We know we must stay the course and focus on our own communication and marketing initiatives as we continue to hit rough waters. Like companies much larger than us, as business owners we all share the knowledge that cutting all efforts to communicate, both internally and externally, will certainly backfire. The messages may change in challenging times, but the communication channels need to remain open so that customers, shareholders and employees can remain confident in our companies.

Those of us who have survived challenging economic downturns in the past know that the first thing many companies cut is public relations and advertising budgets. While this somehow seems to make sense to some individuals initially, it is not a wise long-term strategy. Of course, it can’t always be “business as usual” during an economic downturn; however, strategic communication agencies can help clients make smart decisions and tweak programs so that companies are using cost-effective measures to reach out to their key audiences. For instance, this may be the right time to institute that blog strategy you’ve been considering for so long. Many social media tactics, like blogs, provide cost-effective ways to engage directly with your key audiences and provide your company with instant feedback from consumers, shareholders and/or employees. It may also be time to open up the internal communication channels so employees know their fears are being addressed and that management is available and open to questions and feedback.

Sure, now is a good time to reevaluate your overall communication strategy and shift priorities and dollars toward programs that are more targeted and cost-effective, but as with all decisions these days, it is not time to panic. Following are some links to insightful articles about communicating during tough economic times for entrepreneurs and agencies alike:
http://www.prweekus.com/Challenging-economy-demands-firms-to-focus-on-their-strengths/article/119549/
http://www.briansolis.com/2008/10/in-down-economy-tomorrows-leaders-are.html
http://www.pr-squared.com/2008/10/cut_the_pr_agency_are_you_sure.html

~Ramonna