Advertising and Marketing Blog

Silver Anvil Award

info@daviemclean.com (DMC) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 02:25:18 +0000

The Public Relations Society of America honored the industry’s best work in June. Regarded as “the pre-eminent achievement of public relations – the highest watermark of success for any practitioner or organization,” the Silver Anvils, as the awards are called, “…recognize complete public relations programs incorporating measurable and sound research, planning, execution and evaluation.”

Our work for Keep America Beautiful, in partnership with Hill & Knowlton, an international public relations firm, didn’t win a single award: it won TWO.

The trip to success began in 2009 with an idea for a fresh new approach on litter prevention that we pitched to Keep America Beautiful with Hill & Knowlton. With a client keen on creating a fresh, creative litter-prevention campaign, and with Hill & Knowlton’s penchant for communications strategy, market research, consumer insights and top-notch management of the entire process, we presented three campaigns we were very proud of, and, frankly, we knew had a great shot at standing out not only in the marketplace, but in glitzy NYC ballrooms filled with statuettes.

We’re actually kind of sheepish about touting this success, lest we sound boastful. Rather, it’s a validation of the promise the team sold to Keep America Beautiful; that if they actually bought what they said they wanted (so many clients talk the talk, but, well, limp, crawl and sputter when it comes time to walking the walk), that we’d get through to consumers. We’d get them talking. We’d shake them out of complacency and actually invite a dialog with them, using all of the tools at our disposal in this Information Age. Keep America Beautiful fully embraced the idea and the premise and based on the successful pilot that earned the Silver Anvils, has now made the campaign available to all of its affiliates around the country.

We’re not really much for awards, in and of themselves. We’d much rather feed the campaigns we create to the marketplace, and earn our just rewards as they actually make an impact. But, when “senior practitioners judge each entry,” and deem no other more effective, it’s a great dialog starter of its own with current and future DMC clients to ‘put it out there;’ to ‘ask for, and buy a campaign that actually makes your palms sweat. One that you might have to answer a lot of internal questions about in selling it through. One that, lo and behold, you might actually even get a phone call or two from a citizen so concerned with how “creative” and different the campaign is. THAT’S the kind of work that moves needles. That’s what improves bottom lines, or stakeholder perceptions or decreases litter (or fills a sales pipeline or compels donors to give). Gone are the days of you telling your audiences what you want to say. They seek out information now. You have to know them, well. You have to resonate with them. You have to matter.

The two Silver Anvils won by Keep America Beautiful are a testament to those facets of communications today. They’re a testament to confident marketers like Keep America Beautiful who take chances (because the alternative simply isn’t viable). Getting lost in the marketplace with safe, me-too messaging is rife with many more unsavory consequences than a few phone calls about your provocative new campaign. Go for it; it’s your job. Good things happen to marketers who take well-calculated chances.

Turn the page

jmclean@daviemclean.com (Jenn McLean) — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 21:06:20 +0000

Ah, the new year! A chance to start fresh. Make resolutions. Reinvent ourselves. Something we’ve taken quite literally here at DAVIEMCLEAN.

On January 1, 2011, my former business partner and dear friend, Dan Davie, made the exciting decision to move from agency- to client-side. Dan’s new role will be as COO of Hielix, a pioneer in managing the adoption of healthcare IT to streamline the exchange of health information.

As a DAVIEMCLEAN client, Hielix looked to Dan and DAVIEMCLEAN to literally reinvent them over the past year. He did his usual fantastic job – so much so that Hielix is largely regarded as one of the thought leaders in their industry. Their choosing Dan to run what he helped re-create shows even more astute thinking on their part. We couldn’t be happier for Dan.

So as we turn the proverbial page, we thought it appropriate to change our name as well. But not by much. As of now, we’ll go by the handle DMC, keeping a part of the name that was there from its formation but taking it somehwere new.

The creative team and the creative product we’re known for hasn’t changed. Nor is our commitment to delivering the same level of work we always have. The exciting part about the change is the chance to bring heavy-hitter human resources to our accounts as needed – people with expertise and passion and skills that we’ll leverage to meet our clients’ needs.

2011. An exciting new chapter for us and for our clients. We’re looking forward to it!

Think more. Design less.

jmclean@daviemclean.com (Jenn McLean) — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:05:20 +0000

I came across this poster promoting a design workshop in Toronto. It reads:

Think more. Design less.

Many desperate acts of design (drop shadows, gradients and the gratuitous use of transparency) are committed in the void left by a strong concept. A good idea provides a framework for design decisions, guiding the work.

And what is good design? It depends. Sometimes it’s barely a design at all: I’ve seen very effective ads that are almost completely devoid of anything but the message itself. It works because the message is good. What good design is can also be expressed as what good design doesn’t do; it doesn’t get in the way of a strong message. Thankfully (for it keeps us in the profession true to our profession), good design can’t mask weak thinking, either. If what looks great on a wall in an art director’s office doesn’t resonate with its intended audience, there’s nothing great about it.

Why isn’t there more great thinking in a profession full of ‘experts’ and ‘professional communicators?’ Here are a few ruminations:

Not enough ‘sit with it’ time. Good things really do come to those who wait. It’s one thing to think you nailed an idea early on in the brainstorming process, but, in my experience, it’s in the next couple of days that it takes on new dimension, as you challenge the idea, preemptively answer the client’s inevitable questions, make it lawsuit-proof, and then make it fresh. “When will the consumer see this; what will be on her mind; what will her preconceptions about the product or company be; what will she have recently seen from our competition…” You have to at least try on the shoes of the consumer and other stakeholders (if not walk a mile in them) to get a lay of the land. And from that lay of the land, invest the additional thinking that resonates, engages, provokes.

Bad designers. Pay attention to billboards and posters these days. Is a human really laying out these messages, with black type on a dark blue background (as I recently spotted in a Honda dealer campaign recently). Or a URL on a backlit billboard that no one without binoculars could read. Or super-close-up photography that borders on abstract art, that adds nothing but distraction to the presentation. Hell, these may even have been strong thoughts, but bad design pulled them down into the mediocre mire. No drop shadow required.

Disdain for the medium. I’d put good money on the aforementioned poster in Honda dealerships all over the country that the junior art director simply didn’t put his/her heart into it. “It’s a poster, for God’s sake, I wanna do TV!” So, the black type ends up on a blue background that blends in, as if by design, to camouflage the message like invisible ink: except no one gave them the invisible ink pen to swipe over it and make it readable.

Strong-willed creatives forcing ‘award-winning’ off-strategy concepts down people’s throats. Puns are the bane of marketing communications’ existence. A great turn of phrase, and the writer (usually) sees Gold Pencils and Winged Awards and bonus checks for his/her supreme creativity… and wills it into existence. It may be a knee-jerk pun, or one you’d hear at an amateur comedy club with a three-drink minimum, but, it squeaks its way through and, boom, an ineffective, ill-thought-out piece of something adds to the media clutter of forgettable advertising.

Corporate lawyers/queasy clients. The result is the same with either. Palms start sweating when a truly brilliant execution is presented. And the client depends on the legal guys to ‘get them out of it,’ so they won’t lose their jobs because “no one’s ever done that before.’ Me-too advertising is safe advertising – messaging or design wise. So you see creatives have two hurdles to overcome in creating a great piece of communication. And as soon as lawyers, who are consumers like you and me, put on their legal hats, and look at things from the standpoint of getting sued, or offending some blue-hair with too much time other their hands, things go downhill quickly from there.

One of the best things we do as an agency is compelling our clients to live up to our claims to be smart thinkers. To expect more than a headline and the latest typeface/layout when we come to them with creative solutions. We set their expectations that we like to zig a bit when others zag. That our solutions may not be obvious (isn’t that why they came to us in the first place?). And when we bring strong, out-of-the-box thinking to them, it’s under this notion that it’s exactly what they agreed to and were expecting.

Think about the last really, really great piece of advertising you saw. Remember the affect it had on you? Did you pause the DVR, call in someone from the other room? Go to their website shortly thereafter? Tell someone about it? We’ve all seen stuff like this – but not nearly enough from an industry supposedly staffed with communications professionals. To our defense, there are lots of things in the way of a purely great solution and getting it in front of an audience. But it happens, which means it’s possible. And it should be the goal of every marketing director directing marketing. It’s the cost of doing business. Because if you’re not resonating with a strong idea, strongly designed, then you’re failing your company. It’s what they hired you to do. And if it was easy to do, the execs in the corner office would have had their Administrative Assistants doing it.

4 SEO Metrics for Ad Agency Analytics

ddavie@daviemclean.com (DMC) — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 16:37:34 +0000

There are lots of good reasons to support your website with strong analytics. Even in what is still a very young market, analytics have evolved way past just counting eyeballs. Qualified traffic is the currency of web success. It is where we focus our efforts and those of our customers. In our opinion, all the other web oriented metrics that companies are looking at – registrations, demos, purchases even shares and re-tweets – all originate from qualified traffic.

However, that also means that marketing departments and agencies who would hope to be marketing partners must have the strategic marketing and analytical chops to define what qualified traffic is based on the individual site, capture and decipher the data, as well as have the ability to make and execute recommendations. It’s the analytical part that we are most interested in here. For our organic SEO clients, every month we distribute and review an SEO report that trends for months of traffic data across a broad range of analytical metrics. Instead of sifting through the entire report I have highlighted a few of my favorites below. Of course you can always contact us to learn more about our SEO programs and how they integrate with other interactive and marketing communications programs.

Bounce rate
Simple, unbiased and one of the favorite starting points. Essentially, bounce rate measures if visitors come to your homepage and leave without seeing anything else on the site. If you’re bounce rate is high (45%+) then there are a number of potential issues at play. The site could be difficult to navigate, it could fail at helping the visitor identify they belong there or it could just be boring. Bounce rate is a great starting point with clients for beginning to identify who you want coming to your site – AND what action do you want them to take when they get there.

Non-branded organic traffic
Let’s break this down into two parts – non-branded (search results that did not result from the company name) - and organic (URL not typed directly into the search bar, traffic derived from other indirect means like keyword searches for example). In this case, and for our purposes with clients, we look at the total amount of non-branded, organic traffic over a period of one month. In addition, we look at how that monthly traffic compares with the preceding three months. Remember – good SEO is not a sprint. This type of traffic is SEO gold – these are visitors who have come to your site without typing in or searching the company name. They are by their name and nature far more qualified visitors to your site. Obviously, we like to see the number trending up over time. When it does, that means all the other SEO forces (which we won’t go into here) are working in harmony and bringing a client very positive returns.

Organic traffic percentage
In addition to the total amount of organic traffic we also pay close attention to the percentage of overall traffic coming from organic sources. This metric, I will admit, can be viewed a bit as self-serving for the agency/marketing partner. However, watching this trend closely can provide all kinds of analytical insights. Is the money being spent on organic vs. paid search delivering the balance of traffic the client is hoping for? Are there parallel trends to the growth of organic traffic in the conversion metrics discussed earlier? If organic traffic is up and conversions are either flat or declining, that provides a spotlight on areas to fix in the site.

Referrals
Again, this one is a no-brainer. How much traffic comes directly from other sites. We all know how important link building is to the SEO process, but for our team, referrals mean more than that. In an integrated search program, referral traffic is also an excellent way to provide some baseline measurement on the effects of social media campaigns. How successful is Facebook, Twitter, etc. at driving traffic away from the social media platform and to the client site? In addition, how does referral traffic compare with regular traffic? Just looking at some basics – # of pages visited, length of stay and, of course, bounce rate.

A strong SEO program can have dramatic affects on the overall performance of a client’s website and of course, any marketing communications programs tied to web conversions/qualification.

Business Killer: Status Quo

ddavie@daviemclean.com (DMC) — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 18:11:40 +0000

Could there be anything more likely to make a business boring, predictable or less relevant than following the status quo. If the last decade has taught us anything shouldn’t it be that we can either evolve with the times or get crushed by them? For full disclosure there are few business that fall more easily into the “that’s the way we’ve always done it” trap more often than ad agencies. However, I’m not here to rant on my agency brethren.

Maintaining the status quo means a lack of thought leadership, a vulnerable brand identity and a market share taken for granted. Customers and prospects will ALWAYS find new ways to get by what you're selling them. And they’ll either do it in cheaper, more efficient ways. Or they’ll do it themselves. The point is rational, unemotional, analytical evaluation of every business – and business process – on a regular basis is a healthy thing. Here are a few ways to make sure you aren’t stuck in the trap.

Talk to your customers – often
No one knows more about the value and weaknesses of your company and products (or services) than the people who are paying money for them. And listen carefully to what they have to say – the vast majority of the time they want to keep doing business with you. They’ll just want to know they’re being heard and their concerns are being taken seriously. You’ll find the change they require is often incremental and you may even discover new areas of revenue generation that will ultimately lead to ... new customers.

Gain some outside perspective
One of the great things about working with a third party – whether a consultant or agency – is the viewpoint they can bring from not having to live your business day in and day out. Separation yields perspective. Choose a good vendor to help you look at your market/offerings/company again and you may very well find it a breath of fresh air. And make sure you allow that person/team to objectively challenge your thinking, your current assumptions, your tactics. If you choose a competent third party – and authentically empower them – the likelihood you’ll get back greater value increases exponentially.

Execute
Were I forced to choose a single business skill above anything else it would be the ability to execute. It is what will separate winning and losing ... small gains in market share and achieving an exit strategy. Especially in small, emerging companies we see too much planning and not enough executing. The market will give you all the data and feedback you need, if you have something in the field to offer. It’s one of the primary foundations of good marketing – test, test and retest. Getting something the field will proivde you with more validation – and more opportunities to execute.

Great ideas can come from anywhere inside (or outside) of the organization. Be open to hearing them, validate what you’ve heard and deliver.

Social Climbing

test@daviemclean.com (Jeff Rasmussen) — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 17:16:49 +0000

I stood transfixed at a rock-climbing wall at an outdoor festival recently. Transfixed with others of my ilk: predominantly male, predominantly too… modest to attempt the climb, predominantly all-knowing, though, about how to accomplish the feat.

The feat? Climbing up what looks to be, even to this non-climber, a very challenging climb, which includes a middle portion that’s way not-just-vertical (impressed by my rock-climbing lingo, aren’t you?).

The deal was this: pay $10, and “all you have to do” is climb to the top, ring the bell and we’ll pay you back $30. Net $20, for something we all did as kids.

I was perusing the offerings within the social media community lately (the one that espouses its merits at the same time it extols its simplicity and its complexity). It occurred to me that many companies are like those of us transfixed on the “other” side of the rock-climbing wall.

You see, an interesting phenomenon happens at the rock-climbing wall. Those of us who have NEVER climbed a rock (or wall) as adults, those of us who haven’t climbed a real rock since our childhoods, and a few of “us” who have, all observed the Intrepid Few who ponied up their money and gave it a shot.

The thoughts that went through my mind, it became obvious to me, were pretty much the same thoughts all of us wall-watchers were having. We were silently (and not too long afterwards, vocally) coaching those on the wall with simple, can’t-you-see-how-obvious-it-is solutions that would lead them to ($20) riches. “Reach out with your left foot…around the corner!” someone would offer. “Switch feet on the white peg, then reach up with your right hand!” others would submit simultaneously. We were all, obviously, solving this simple vertical riddle… but were too, what’s the word… immobilized (by possible humiliation… probably [and public] muscle fatigue), to put into action our theories.

Many people and companies are still sitting transfixed on the social media marketing sidelines. We know it’s possible (we’ve seen the case studies). We know we should be doing it. We know it’s not rocket science (heck, the dreadlocked, barefooted guy just rocketed to the top of the wall - oh, sorry, that’s the rock-climbing part of this story). But, all the same, we’ve heard the young kids who’ve leveraged Twitter to riches (heck, they created Twitter). And we’ve seen hallowed corporate institutions put on bold new faces and stake their social ground. But others of us continue to watch. And even, silently mostly, think of how we’d have done it better. Or how those results could have been even more auspicious. (“Use your third arm and grab the blue nub above your head!”)

And then there are doubtless those of us who stood at the rock wall utterly in awe that people were making it even halfway up. Or were bold enough (cocksure) to pay MONEY to try (in PUBLIC!). Threatened? Paralyzed? Doesn’t matter the word, the result is the same. We’re sidelined. Watching the proverbial world go by as, literally, another blog is created every SECOND of every day. We watch and read and hear about the connectivity and viral nature of the big social networking sites…and we do nothing!

Prudence has its place, I’m here to espouse. But only for those companies making the commitment RIGHT NOW to embrace social media in a big way – and very soon. And perhaps their prudence will pay off by not letting the summer intern ‘give it a go.' Maybe their somewhat-late-adopter strategy will save them missteps and frivolous time and financial investment… because when they finally take the social plunge, they’ll do it with(in) a corporate strategy. They’ll know where they’re going. They’ll know with whom they’re engaging. They’ll know how their social media strategy dovetails with their existing one. They’ll know not to hawk their wares on their very first posting (or their 21^st or their 101^st). They’ll know lots of rules and have a proactive roadmap they developed with a social media marketing expert/partner.

Social media marketing isn’t rocket science. But there’s science involved. And there’s art. And there’s patience and nuance and corporate confidence. Oh, and there’s a fair amount of re-training the old dogs in the marketing and PR departments about the re-written (okay, nearly obsolete) 4 P’s of marketing.

You don’t get the $20 if you don’t make it to the top and ring the bell.

You don’t reap the rewards of social media marketing if you don’t commit to it, do it right and do it well. And while every company, organization, government, widget manufacturer, garage-band, political candidate and babysitting service can benefit from it… the art/science/practice itself simply isn’t for everyone. Maybe you haven’t liked words since 9^th grade vocabulary (when they really got poly-syllabic). Maybe you do 13 other things and the thought of writing a weekly or even a monthly blog simply bloggles your mind. That’s understandable. If that’s the case, though…find someone to help you. The world may literally pass you by if you resist this social movement that’s afoot. It may not, too. But, are you willing to simply stand transfixed on the sidelines to find out?

Communicating for the Sake of Communicating

jmclean@daviemclean.com (Jenn McLean) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 19:50:35 +0000

My job is to be a good communicator. Through words and images and color and concept. As such, I should embrace all of the different ways I communicate with others, making sure nothing gets lost in translation or misunderstood or, God forbid, forgotten. And I’m not even talking about social media. I’m talking about the basics in a workplace between coworkers... emails, phone calls, yadda-yadda. In our office, we use a lovely program called “BaseCamp”... where everything we ever do or say is posted for all of us to have access (excess) to.

So on any given day, I respond to all sorts or things, sometimes more than once, while trying to do what it is I am sitting here trying to do, which is to... wait for it.... be a great communicator. All of this communicating is what it is... in our (physical and mind) spaces today, but I’m always looking for ways to lessen the amount of communicating I do so I can be better and more efficient at communicating... on my client’s behalf.

I know I have a lot of choir members out there saying “Amen, sister!” while others of you are probably thinking “Get over it.” I know we would all be lost without our unlimited ways we keep in touch, so I do see the value. But I just marvel some days when I look at actual working hours I have billed and wonder where the heck my day went.

Right?

I am reminded (again) of my mentor and boss, John, who once told me he wanted me to set my computer up to “auto-boot” in the morning before I got in, all in an effort to save those precious few minutes in order to make the morning that much more efficient for time to work and focus.

Ah, focus!

I see now, as a business partner, exactly where he was coming from. How he knew in his infinite wisdom how easily we creatives can be distracted, when we should be sitting down with our coffee with gobs of ideas ready to create.

So, a little advice before I go.

For those of us who have more than one hat to wear at our jobs, resulting in many emails that require our attention and response, here are some things I have learned to do in order to make my masses of emails remain relevant and meaningful to me and to those I communicate with:

1. Take the time required to read and absorb your emails, particularly the ones that require YOUR feedback and direction. To skim them will only cause you to miss something and lengthen that email thread when something required of you comes up missing.

2. If there’s more than one email about the same topic, read them all and THEN combine your responses into one concise email, eliminating the annoying snippets that end up getting sent over the course of an hour...as you think of them. It only confuses and frustrates everyone on the receiving end...and makes you look like a hot mess (say it isn’t so!!!!). So get it all in that first email: questions you have, things requiring clarification, changes to deadlines, needs from the client, next steps for you from here, etc. The more you can close the loop on any one subject the less you have to endure back and forth – and the more time you’ll have left to communicate some more!

3. Context is key. If you are writing with your officemate about the hottest new nail colors and then suddenly decide to email her about something related to a job you are both working on, change the subject line to reflect that! Seems obvious, right? Well, we all do it and that’s how that really important shipping address you emailed to her ended up getting lost or overlooked.

Thanks for listening (I feel better now). And, lest I get accused of communicating for the sake of communicating, I’ll get back to communicating (for the sake of billing), and you can get back to whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing...

Signing off....for now, at least.

“jenn mac”

Marketing Analytics are Fun

ddavie@daviemclean.com (DMC) — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:46:20 +0000

Now don’t get me wrong, I love a well designed ad or campaign just like everyone else. I get caught up in the emotion of rocking headlines, inspiring visuals and body copy that tugs at my heartstrings. Recently, I was completely inspired by the campaign that Nike did for the World Cup (below).

However, as we’re going through our day-to-day providing strategic marketing services to our clients, I also get really excited to dive into the analytics of HOW the campaigns we build are actually doing the job we design and architect them to do. Marketing analytics play a huge role in the success of any marketing campaign. Right now we’re not talking about some of the core operational metrics we deal with everyday like conversions, close rates, customer lifetime value, etc. Here are five of my current online faves we use in analyzing the success of our marketing campaigns.

Open/Click Through Rates

The bread and butter analytic measurement for e-mail campaigns. Just knowing these two things can give you tremendous insight into the value of your e-mail marketing campaign. Is the subject line engaging enough for our prospect list to open the e-mail and see what’s inside? One of our best read e-mails carried the subject line, “a left brain and right brain walk into a bar.” Then once they’re in are they clicking on the link(s) that we want them to?

Shares/Retweets

With social media waging war for their piece of marketing budgets – and with programs being executed only sparingly well – how do we provide vision to marketing executives that social efforts are working? One great way to do that is shares/retweet. It’s surprising simple from a back end perspective and will help frame the discussion about how a particular campaign is growing a client’s community. And really in this world isn’t share the new “convert” anyway? Want to broaden your message, extend your reach and influence residents on a peer-to-peer level? Click to share.

Capture Forms/Landing Pages

The Robin to an e-mail marketing campaign’s Batman. Get people to click through to a landing page and you’re half way home. Those folks are ready for more detailed sales information and they’re open to the next conversation – the capture form. Think carefully here and don’t get too greedy. What information do you really need to take the next step? E-mail address, Twitter handle, name and company? Don’t try to get it all at once, you’ll scare off more people than you convert . . . and give yourself more reason to continue to nurture those leads.

Non-Branded Organic Traffic

Warning, I’m about to get my SEO geek on. It’s great that customers and prospects can remember and type in the web address. It’s the rest of the world that intrigues me. How we can keep traffic growing among those visitors who don’t know a site well enough to type in the address directly? To have a site come up in search results, etc. Those are new and potentially very valuable visitors. By the same token, for the most part we ignore traffic stats for the home page. Of course people come to the home page more than anything else. I’m far more interested in what inside pages are getting the most traffic. Are they the pages we expected with our architecture and design? If not, what’s missing?

Traffic Spikes

What makes site traffic go wild? Blog posts, and e-mail distributions? Does traffic spike higher when the post or e-mail is paired with social media outreach? How long does the bump last from a single post/distribution? And how can we make that peek last as long as possible? We love to look at this data to help determine the types of content to focus on for a particular audience. Take this in comparison with overall weekly traffic and you can come to some good conclusions on not only effective subject matter but days of the week people are most likely to be on your site anyway. Obviously a tool like Google Analytics is a must have.

Data is the best friend of successful marketing campaigns. What are some of your favorite metrics for analyzing he success of marketing campaigns? Let us know – it’s all gravy.

IdeaField Coworking

gdavie@daviemclean.com (DMC) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 21:21:41 +0000

Well it has been a whirlwind of a last month or two between launching the anti-litter campaign in Cincinnati and moving into our new space, we wanted to spend a moment and speak to all the freelancers, creatives and entrepreneurs in the community. In tandem with the launch of the new DMC space we have also relocated (co-located?) IdeaField with us as well! For those of you new to the idea of coworking here is some good info to bring you up to speed on the concept.

That being said you can currently check out the happenings, membership rates, and free days at IdeaField.org. We are planning to have a brand spanking new site up in the very near future (since Ning went rogue) so be sure to check back often. And for those who don’t feel like link clicking here is the ten second run down: free wifi and coffee, desk space and all the fresh air you can breathe. Fridays and your first time in are always free, so swing by check out the new space and have a steaming hot cup o’ coworking.

Oh, and we're at 1911 19th St. N. in Ybor City.

-g.d.

Littering Is Wrong Too

ddavie@daviemclean.com (DMC) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 13:41:17 +0000

We are excited to announce the launch of a pilot anti-litter campaign in Cincinnati, OH. Below we have included the official press release!

‘WHAT IS AS WRONG AS LITTERING?’

Keep America Beautiful and Hill & Knowlton
Launch New Litter Prevention Campaign

New York, NY — Litterers beware! Keep America Beautiful (KAB), in partnership with Keep Cincinnati Beautiful (KCB), is launching a new litter prevention education campaign that calls attention to the inappropriate act of littering and the thoughtlessness of offenders. The campaign, “Littering is Wrong Too” was developed by Hill & Knowlton (www.hillandknowlton.com) and creative partner, DAVIEMCLEAN (www.daviemclean.com). It allows everyone to get involved in a unique way by writing their own ads on the campaign Website, www.LitteringIsWrongToo.org. The campaign links littering with other wrongdoings like “networking at a funeral” or “breaking up on Valentine’s Day,” while also defining the personality of the litterer as a socially unaccepted jerk.

Geared at young adults, who are found to be most likely to litter, the campaign entertains in order to get people talking. The ultimate goal is to change perceptions of those who litter and the act of littering, to induce a change in behavior and lead to a cleaner, more beautiful city.

The campaign kicked off July 15 in Cincinnati, where a three month pilot is being conducted. The goal is for the campaign to be rolled out nationally early next year. KAB is currently seeking sponsors for the national effort. In the meantime, Cincinnati residents will see and hear a lot about the problem of litter in the coming months.

“Sadly, many still don’t view litter as a problem,” said Matthew McKenna, President and Chief Executive Officer of Keep America Beautiful, Inc. “They don’t understand that litter has a real and serious economic impact on a community, in addition to the environmental fallout. For example, a recent KAB study found that litter in a community can decrease property values by seven percent. We’re hoping to engage people through this campaign and in that process, get them to recognize that littering is a problem, but a preventable one.”

The Cincinnati pilot will feature ads on billboards, posters at popular bars and restaurants, online, city events and the radio. In addition to concerts and outdoor events, residents will be exposed to the campaign at select professional baseball and football games as well as local college sporting events, where they will have an opportunity to write their own “wrongs” and showcase them in photos and videos that will be featured and voted upon on the campaign Website, www.LitteringisWrongToo.org.

Residents can “write their wrong” online, adding their own creativity to the campaign. Throughout the pilot period, residents can compete for the “wrongest wrong” with prizes being awarded throughout the time period and a grand prize winner announced upon completion of the campaign. Cincinnatians are encouraged to share their wrongs, photos and videos with friends and family through their social networks, helping generate more buzz for the problem of litter while engaging residents in a humorous way.

“We designed this campaign to be as engaging as possible,” said Lena Davie, vice president, Hill & Knowlton. “Litter is not something people think about every day, so we knew that we had to make the campaign fun, and different, to catch their attention, and hopefully get them talking. We playfully put litter on their radar and in doing so remind them that it is still a problem, and that it’s socially unacceptable.”

Hill & Knowlton has been working with Keep America Beautiful since the beginning of 2009 on recycling as well as litter prevention issues.

ABOUT KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL
Keep America Beautiful, Inc., established in 1953, is the nation's largest volunteer-based community action and education organization. With a network of over 1,200 affiliates and participating organizations, Keep America Beautiful forms public-private partnerships and programs that engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community's environment. To learn more, visit www.kab.org.

ABOUT HILL & KNOWLTON

Hill & Knowlton, Inc. is a leading international communications consultancy, providing services to local, multinational and global clients. The firm is headquartered in New York, with 79 offices in 44 countries, as well as an extensive associate network. In Florida, the firm has offices in Tallahassee, Tampa and Miami. The agency is part of WPP, one of the world's largest communications services groups.