InsideOut Branding

Happy Thanksgiving!

One of my favorite KSV traditions is our annual Thanksgiving lunch.

Everyone brings in a dish -- from butternut squash to pumpkin pecan trifle to Asian salads -- and gathers around a long table we create in our very unique diner. When you enter the office on that Friday morning, you discover that the smell of turkey is wafting throughout the entire building (and into your office).

The lunch always caps off our week-long United Way fundraising campaign. This year, we raised nearly $10,000 in one week to go to much-needed programming in our community (employees contribute any way they would like and KSV matches the collective employee donation by 50 percent).

Find out how you can help out at the United Way of Chittenden County's web site.

So from KSV, enjoy Turkey Day, time with family & friends, good food, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and think of a way to give as well as say thanks this holiday season.

-- Alexandra Tursi

For Banks, Green Can Lead to Black

"Going green can help financial services companies cut overhead costs, attract environmentally aware consumers and stay ahead of the competition."
-Susan Menke, senior financial services analyst, Mintel-

To stay on competitive during the market downswing, a number of banks are going green to save on the green.

Here are just a few things some of them are up to:

• Offering incentives to customers who opt for paperless statements and online bill pay
• Planting a tree for every customer who stops paper statements
• Rewarding customers who go green with more greenbacks
• Rewarding customers a monetary amount (say ten cents) for each electronic payment they make. Citizen's Bank is doing that. The bank expects their Green$ense program to save 700,000 pounds of paper and nearly seven million gallons of water in the first year alone.
• Offering home equity line of credit for borrowers making green home improvements.
• Promoting auto loans with lower rates for customers buying vehicles that get more miles to the gallon

How are you leveraging consumer drive to be green to create benefits for you, the consumer and the environment?

-- Alexandra Tursi

Going Greener

Today, KSV welcomed the carbon footprint experts over at Springhill Solutions for an informative luncheon on the "hows" and "whys" behind measuring one's carbon footprint, then taking steps to lessen it.

A lot of people say it's easy being green, for a company, though, challenges abound.

• Measurement. With so many tools out there to use to measure your footprint, how do you know which ones to trust and use to benchmark?
• Leadership. How can you convince the C-suite to sign-on to these initiatives?
• Energy. Prices are jumping up in July, then looking low in October. In an atmosphere of volubility, how can you plan to strategically take on energy costs?
• Focus. Your employees want to alternacommute, you want to switch out all office incandescents to CFLs, and your team wants to tackle heating. Where do you focus first? Where is the most payback?

A lot of questions, but perhaps the greatest one is when will your company start trying to answer the tough questions?

Springhill offers a good springboard for thinking greener.

• Choose one way of measuring, be consistent and keep records on everything. That way, even if you switch your mode of measure, you've got history to work off of.
• Show your leaders and managers a great ROI for energy-saving and eco-friendly measures. Chances are monetary savings mixed with corporate responsibility can get you off the ground.
• Though the economy is weakened and the pendulum has swung back and forth on oil costs, it's like energy costs are on the rise. More so, consumers and companies continue to see value in green initiatives.
• In terms of focus, there is a three-tier breakdown: Scope 1 (heating fuel, transportation fuel, cooling system leaks, chemicals), Scope 2 (electricity) and Scope 3 (solid waste, commuting, supply chain, products, etc.). Scope 1 and 2 is where you will likely want to focus first. Taking on the big costs, like heating buildings or fueling a distribution fleet, makes sense. If you're employees commute from far distances, though, perhaps you'll want to focus on Scope 3 as we did with the KSV commuter challenge.
• Realize that the process itself symbolizes success. My colleague Cheryl summed it up best when she said "there are no green companies, only companies going greener," citing Patagonia and Timberland.

How are you going to start?

-- Alexandra Tursi

Did You Read?: AdAge Names Obama Marketer of the Year

It's just a few weeks before we'll know if Barack Obama can deliver on one of the biggest marketing campaigns out there -- a presidential bid -- but, already, marketers worldwide have named him the "marketer of the year" in AdAge's annual poll. (He edged out Apple, Zappos.com, Nike, Coors and Mr. McCain with 36.1 percent of the vote).

So what's his recipe for success? Here are just a few things AdAge identifies:

Successful Launch. Obama went from being an Illinois senator known as a rising star within the Democratic circle to a worldwide hit, with a tour that crossed the globe. A big (and tactical) product launch!

Consistent Messaging. A resonant message at the right time many would argue that's being continually repeated at ralllies, debates and in online conversations.

Digital Strategy. Obama built upon Howard Dean's success in reaching out to people digitally, by launching an engaging social networking strategy. Ease of participation in his campaign helped him reach a broad swath of volunteers and donors.

Mobile Communication. Regular text messages with news and campaign updates fostered a sense collective spirit and involvement in the campaign. And everyone loves to have the latest scoop first.

What do you think? Does Obama win in your book?

Check out the article for what marketers said about the runners-up. Andrew Romano over at Newsweek also has some interesting thoughts on the Obama brand.

-- Alexandra Tursi

They Had Us At The Heli Shot

It won't be too long before ski season is upon us...and our office is abuzz with the prospect of hitting the powder for some amazing skiing, snowboarding, snow shoeing and the like. I received word from my colleague Caroline, senior project manager in our brand group, that Stowe Mountain already got just short of two inches of snow on its summit!

She also sent along this cool snowboarding video. Travis Rice, celebrated pro-snowboarder, and friends put it together. It'll get you thinking snow.

Warning from Caroline: "Put your headphones on (caution: heavy metal)."

-- Alexandra Tursi

Where It's At: Owning the Browser Space

Last weekend, a colleague and I were in New York for PRNews' Digital PR Next Practices Summit. The most compelling takeaway for me was this simple formula: utility + personal value = successful digital tool.

At one point, panelists were asked to identify the next big trend in social media. Answers from the panelists split between two potentialities: the further expansion of video and the growing interest in owning the browser space.

When I got back to the office last Monday, I saw one of those trends in action. Yahoo! and the Environmental Defense Fund teamed up with Network and FreeCause to create a toolbar.

Money is raised every time those who have downloaded the application conduct a search powered by Yahoo!. Additionally, a percentage of the sales completed online at participating e-commerce Web sites like Amazon and eBay are also contributed to EDF.

The toolbar works for a number of reasons:

1. Simplicity. It provides users with a quick and everyday way to make a difference.

2. Visibility. As an addition to the browser window -- something people generally have opened all day long and use all day long -- EDF and Yahoo! allow users to interact with both brands everyday.

3. Meaningfulness. For those committed to environmentalism, it offers the opportunity to do something meaningful everyday, and tell their friends about it. 

Fits the formula quite well.

-- Alexandra Tursi

Thrill of the Chase

What do you think of Washington Mutual's new advertisement?

Though we all love a clever line, it doesn't seem to be the right time for those in the banking industry to be flippant.

-- Alexandra Tursi

Mapping the Social Network of a Small Town

When I find something I love -- a great restaurant like Burlington's Magnolia, for example -- I have to tell my friends and colleagues about it. It's the kind of zeal that BuzzAgent loves in consumers. One person tells another who tells another who tells another....to the point that your original recommendation makes it all the way to some college freshmen out in California somehow.

So imagine my surprise this morning when I read in the New York Times that Vaseline is literally mapping word-of-mouth on their campaign for a new lotion called Clinical Therapy in a small Alaska town. “We found the whole concept of the interconnectedness of people really fascinating,” said John Foster, the creative director of Bartle Bogle Hegarty New York.

What started out as a social map has become a documentary and micro-site.

Burlington's a small city too, and I'd love to see a social map of where my recommendations go, or a social map of the conversations that take place right within the walls of 212 Battery Street.

-- Alexandra Tursi

Agency Life, Then and Now

We finally have the DVDs for Season One of AMC's Mad Men at the office...and we're all bemoaning the days of two-martini lunches already.

Last Friday, we hosted a lunch and viewing for all interested parties.

Friday also happens to be our unofficial bring-your-pooch-to-work day, so some of KSV's four-legged friends enjoyed this television gem! Not only is the writing (and fashion) on the show fantastic, during each ad break, a fact about advertising's history is featured.

If you haven't seen it yet, check out the Mad Men blog for backstory and tid bits; if you're obsessed, try the Mad Men quiz.

Don't have a TV or DVD player? My colleague and blog contributor Maurine Gilbert just passed along to me Joshua Ferris' 2007 novel, Then We Came to the End, about life at a contemporary ad agency. Hilarious.

--Alexandra Tursi

We Saved a Half Ton of CO2

KSV just wrapped up its first ever Commuter Challenge, during which we asked employees to try alterna-commuting for one month. KSVers carpooled, biked and walked to cut down on the CO2 we emit due to transportation.

As the challenge came to a close, Laura McKenna and Kate Prunty, members of our internal green team, ran some numbers to find out what we had saved. They discovered that we collectively:

• Decreased travel mileage by 7.2 percent
• Cut 860 miles of our collective travel mileage
• Saved 0.5 tons of CO2 from being emitted into the environment

What do the numbers mean? Well...half a ton of carbon is equivalent to:

• 1,917,177.9 cups of coffee
• 50 reams of paper
• 6.6 KSVers (average weight 150lbs)!

Perhaps the most impressive thing we discovered was that if we kept our alterna-commuting up for one year, we would reduce our carbon emissions by 6 tons -- equivalent to 79.2 KSVers. We're encouraging KSVers to keep it up through fall, winter (skiing to work!) and into 2009 as well as develop their own green initiatives.

Next up, we're hoping to tackle some new projects, including junk mail reduction and a foray into composting.

--Alexandra Tursi

*Special thanks to Ski-Rack, Outdoor Gear Exchange and Magnolia, who supplied some wonderful prizes throughout the challenge.