In the inspiring quick read “It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be” by Paul Arden, I came across this nugget of information that is applicable to any field, especially the field of advertising. Enjoy and consider if you are a “hoarder.”
Don’t Covet Your Ideas
Give away everything you know and more will come back to you.
You will remember from school other students preventing you from seeing their answers by placing their arm around their exercise book or exam paper.
It is the same at work, people are secretive with ideas. “Don’t tell them that, they’ll take the credit for it.”
The problem with hoarding is you end up living off your reserves. Eventually, you’ll become stale.
If you give away everything you have, you are left with nothing. This forces you to look, to be aware, to replenish.
Somehow the more you give away the more comes back to you.
Ideas are open knowledge. Don’t claim ownership. They’re not your ideas anyway, they’re someone else’s. They are out there floating by on the ether.
You just have to put yourself in a frame of mind to pick them up.
This weekend, my family and I attended the first annual Color Run. This was the first time St. Louis has hosted this run and it was amazing! Over 15,000 people participated in the walk/run. The official attire for this run is a white t-shirt that ends up looking like a big bag of Skittles, I literally “tasted the rainbow”. At every kilometer, you received a fresh coat of color from many volunteers. Basically it was a big color/food fight! There were people lying on the ground rolling in color by the end of the race! I have to say it was one of the most fun experiences I’ve ever had with my family.
This race taught me patience, perseverance and to let go of the small things! Patience was definitely needed as there were so many runners! We waited in line and got to start in the sixth heat. I’m not sure how many heats there were but when I looked back halfway through the race I saw nothing but a sea of colorful people. My youngest daughter learned perseverance. After the start we walked about 50 feet and she said her foot hurt and she was tired! I looked at my husband and we both just laughed. After the first color wave, she forgot about her foot. She was a trooper! My oldest daughter walked with a group of friends ahead of us (we did end up going the pace of an 8 year old, which was fine by me!) She had a wonderful time and learned patience waiting for us at the finish line! The best part was learning to let go of the small things! As an adult (some might argue with this status), I find myself getting more particular about keeping everyone clean. Only because I do the laundry, and although I do pride myself on the art of stain removal I don’t particularly enjoy the process. Well, if you are a neat freak this race will definitely challenge you! I had color pretty much everywhere and on everything! If you look close at the pictures below you can even see color on our teeth! I finally remembered how much fun I had as a kid just getting messy and not having a care in the world! It was liberating! *I will say that within 1.5 hours of getting home I had every piece of clothing, including shoes, washed and spotless! After the race we all went to CiCi’s Pizza in Arnold. Let’s just say we got quite a few stares and ate our pizza with very colorful hands!
The most important part of this race was that it raised money for Autism Speaks, which is a charity that is very near and dear to my family. It was an amazing way to be able to raise money and most importantly awareness for Autism.
The Color Run St. Louis is already on the calendar for next year and I will be signing up!
start line
finish line
More than a decade in the newspaper business teaches you quite a bit about newspapers, but not a whole lot about other media or marketing in general. So the past 13 months as a BOLD team member have been quite the head-first dip into the deep end of the marketing pool.
I can’t imagine a better way to learn how to swim. The depth of everything we do amazes me – We’re marketing MacGyvers. Yes, there’s traditional advertising like print, TV and radio. There’s business cards and brochures. There’s public relations and websites. All the typical things the average person might think of when you ponder the capabilities of a marketing firm.
But here are some of my favorite things you might not think of…most of the time, these types of projects turn out to have the biggest impact for our clients, and they’re definitely the most memorable for us.
INTERACTIVE GUERILLA
This is an ongoing installation at West Park Mall in Cape Girardeau – it’s a play off the game Twister, emphasizing the spine/back pain treatments offered at the Brain & NeuroSpine Clinic of Missouri. I’ve been to the mall several times a week since it was installed in July, and there’s always someone playing.
I love when our target audience goes from passively consuming our message and brand, to actually interacting with it.
REBRANDING
Working with a new business to create a brand is exciting, but I love rebranding an established business. For the past six months or so, I’ve been privileged to work alongside the Lutheran Home/Saxony Village Retirement Community in Cape Girardeau on rebuilding their branding and messaging across all mediums – website, internal and external collateral, advertising, stationary packages, promotional items and more.
Seeing a client – and their target audience – become excited again about their business or organization through our marketing efforts is a great feeling.
DUAL-PURPOSE PROJECTS
Giving clients collateral pieces that aren’t just informative, but also functional, is another favorite. Beacon Health Center recently launched an effort to target seniors as patients for their primary/urgent care services.
We created this rack card, which highlights those services on the top half, and includes a perforated, detachable card on the bottom with a chart for tracking blood pressure on the front and an appointment card on the back. The perforated card is perfect for tucking in a wallet, purse or Rolodex.
EVENTS
We have flipped pancakes, taken photos with Sasquatch, operated a bouncy castle, bunned hotdogs and manned a shooting range – among other things – for Buchheit this year alone. Events are one of the best ways to reach new customers and re-invigorate old ones…the more creative, the better.
Getting out there to interact directly with our clients’ employees and customers offers the very best insight into the most successful marketing tactics for reaching our target audience – and if we get our hands dirty doing it, even better.
