3. Do Good
PRESENTING: Deep Bench’s 9-9-09 “9 Hour Giveaway”
You want advice. You need consulting. You just need a little bit of help with your marketing.
But you don’t want to pay for it.
We feel your pain. And you’re not alone. But on this legendary day of 09/09/09, Deep Bench is prepared to make an offer that will forever be known as the greatest offer ever in the storied history of marketing consultancy.
We will give you nine – that’s right, NINE – free hours of Deep Bench’s time and strategic efforts if you participate in and win the Deep Bench Facebook Fan Page Contest of 9-9-09. You know what, let’s shorten that to our 9 Hour Giveaway.
“How can we win such an amazing offer?!” you ask? By leaving us a message on our fan page telling the community how you would use your 9 free hours of Deep Bench consulting and then encouraging everyone you know to “Like” your idea on the fan page.
We are ready and willing to share our insight with the winner of the contest, whether that means helping the local flower shop revamp its traditional and online media strategy or teaching a roomful of bank or hospital employees the do’s and don’ts of social media.
Are you desperately hoping to conduct some research before kicking off a new campaign or looking for strategy on which promotional materials you should be using to spread the word about your new business? Let Deep Bench’s nine free hours serve that role (and save you some cash money).
Or maybe you want to conduct a focus group, but can’t afford the 40 hours of work it would take. If you win the Deep Bench Facebook Fan Page Contest of 9-9-09… 9 Hour Giveaway, we’ll credit you with 9 hours of that 40 to lessen the burden of a full-priced focus group analysis.
All we’re asking you to do is encourage your friends and colleagues to become Deep Bench Facebook Fans and support your great idea.
Seems too good to be true, right? Well it’s not. Seriously.
Only a (very) few restrictions apply.
- Nothing criminal or illegal. No matter how cool it may sound.
- We won’t do any work to benefit the pornography industry (that goes for you too, Twitter spambots).
- Deep Bench reserves the right to decline work for people or businesses that may present a conflict of interest or conflict of character.
- The 9 hours have to be used before December 31st, 2009.
On a final note, if you don’t feel like you, your company, or anything related to your livelihood could put 9 hours of Deep Bench consulting to good use, share why you think Deep Bench should donate its time to a charity or non-profit of your choosing. You could end up making a huge difference in the world of a non-profit that could use the strategy and insight without the usual costs that come along with it.
So there you have it. Join the fan page, post how you would use 9 free hours of Deep Bench’s time and brainpower, and build up support for it with “likes.” In fact, we might even make comments on your idea worth a bonus point, so share your idea with everyone you can, and you might just end up spending 9 hours with our Deep Bench crew (and getting some great advice along the way).
The contest will run through the 19th, so you have 10 days to get rolling. We look forward to all of your ideas and suggestions until then!
-The Deep Bench Team
UPDATE: To be clear, the winner will be determined by three criteria:
1. Quality of answer to the question “How would you use 9 hours of Deep Bench support?”
3. Number of “likes,” comments, retweets and other mentions of an individual’s entry and/or of the giveaway in general.
That leaves 2. But 2 is tricky like that. Good luck everyone.
Pigs, Boobs and the County Fair: How To Pull Off An Effective Awareness Campaign
If you’re wondering why we’ve been quiet here for awhile, we here at Deep Bench spent the last week preparing for a strong “Mrs. Dude’s Boob Fund” push. Then we made it happen in a totally awesome and extremely enjoyable way. The good news is that you can do the same thing (if you’re willing).
You see, our Head Coach, Hugh Weber, is an agent for the Ford Fiesta Movement campaign and this month’s mission was social activism. Having been encouraged to promote Mrs. Dude’s Boob Fund (more info on that can be found here), we brainstormed on the best ways to make the effort fun AND helpful for all parties involved.
Fortunately, it was the week of the county fair, so we decided to put the perfect timing to good use by setting up a fair booth, parking the Fiesta in front of that booth, and, in two days, giving away over 900 “Mrs. Dude’s Fund” shirts to the people who stopped by (after we took pictures of each person wearing them or holding them).
Now that you know the back story, the point of this post is this: you too can have a stellar awareness campaign that accomplishes exactly what you set out to do, even if it only lasts two days. Here’s how…
1. Have a story (and believe in that story)
For those of you who don‘t know the history of Mrs. Dude’s Boob Fund, it is truly a beautiful, heartbreaking and touching story. It began last April, and you can watch the video here. While we’re not making the hard Mother’s Day push for Ellen and others that we were making back then, you can tell from the video how important and meaningful it all is for Hugh. It’s this type of commitment and passion that makes the story so integral to a campaign’s success. Everyone involved has to truly appreciate and believe in the story being told. That makes it EASY to tell the story (and allows you to educate, engage and empower others with that story).
2. Have an overall goal and big vision
It’s one thing to have a great story, but if you don’t have a vision and goal for the project, then the story is just that – a story. And the goal shouldn’t simply be “tell people about the cause.” That’s not a goal. That’s just a facet of what should be a multi-tiered effort. For example, our clear objective in this project was to put Mrs. Dude’s Boob Fund on the minds of nearly 1,000 people before we make a stronger push in October, which is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Think about what you want to accomplish and then determine how you can make that happen. Will you have sponsors? Will multiple parties be involved? What materials will you use to help tell the story? (In our case, it was a much-appreciated t-shirt sponsorship from Sioux Falls Ford). These are all elements that should help you achieve the goals you’ve set for the campaign.
3. Be flexible
We came into the Mrs. Dude’s Boob Fund fair booth with the intent of making it a “Would you give the shirt off your back for families fighting cancer?” campaign. Here’s the problem: people dress up for the fair. The last thing some 17 year old kid wants to do is give away a Hollister polo or an Abercrombie tank top. So, we had to take the next logical step, which was simply giving them away and asking people to hold them up or wear them for a photo. Would we have loved to stick to our guns and collect shirts for charity? Certainly. But, we also would’ve failed to achieve our goal (see #2), which was to promote awareness for Mrs. Dude’s Boob Fund, raise money for families fighting cancer and get people to spread the word through the great message (and fantastic t-shirts) we shared.
BONUS TIP: Give out free, quality stuff
That’s right. It’s not necessarily “essential” to a campaign’s success, but free stuff that draws people in (and makes spreading the word even easier for them) is a stellar way to create a buzz, especially at a big, busy place like a fair or other event. Combined with an eye-catching design – such as a big pink piggy bank wearing a bra – free stuff will have people running to your table to “ask about the pig shirt” and learn more about your cause. And once you’re able to tell your great story (see #1) and educate them about the campaign’s goal (see #2), you’ve won. There’s a difference between giving away an item with a logo on it and providing materials that help tell the story. Make sure that each element of your campaign is tied to the overarching goals, and success is sure to follow.
Clearly it takes hard work and good strategy to fully implement a short-term, high-impact campaign like the Mrs. Dude’s Boob Fund effort, but hopefully these tips provide some insight on how you can create a successful campaign for your cause or effort. Just remember this: if all else fails, free t-shirts with hilarious logos on them can be a saving grace.
-Mike
Have you been a part of any fast-hitting, short-term campaigns recently? What did you learn from the experience? Do you have any tips to add to our list? Share your thoughts in the comments below, dropping us a tweet on Twitter, or leaving a comment on our Facebook fan page.
A Guide To Modern Manners: Is reciprocation a requirement?
When someone does you a favor, it’s hard not to reciprocate. I mean, you can obviously say thank you and call it good, but in an era where online reciprocation is one click away, it’s hard not to feel compelled to return the favor of a Twitter user following you or becoming a fan of someone’s Facebook fan page (even if you have no interest whatsoever in what they tweet or share with their pages).
Chris Brogan brings up this dilemma in a recent post he titled “Quid Pro No.” He discusses his own struggle with reciprocity in the online world and how it has affected him recently:
If I invite you to join the Facebook group for Trust Agents, it’s because I think you’ll get some value out of participating there. Say you join the group. If you now invite me to join your real estate company’s fan page after you’ve joined my book’s group, what should I do? Should I say yes because you said yes to me?
But I have no interest in real estate, except for when I’m making a transaction.
So what’s fair and what isn’t fair? What’s right and what’s wrong? As Brogan asks, “Do we expect reciprocal behavior all the time?”
We probably should (I mean, the Golden Rule IS to treat others as you’d like to be treated). But I think it truly depends on how specific you want to get with reciprocity. Maybe reciprocating doesn’t always have to be an even trade.
I think the best example I can give is this. When I go to a coffee shop to work for an afternoon (as we at Deep Bench are wont to do), it’s typically expected that I’ll end up buying something from them to even out the fact that I’m spending an afternoon mooching off of their wi-fi.
But sometimes I just don’t want to buy a $4.00 on a cup of coffee or $3.00 on a slice of banana bread.
So sometimes I don’t.
In these circumstances, I take a different approach. After a full day of work, I’ll walk up and, in a very apologetic tone of voice, say something along these lines: “I’m very sorry, but I don’t intend to buy anything from you today. However, I will sing praises of your hospitality and encourage everyone I know to get coffee here for the rest of the week.” (Yes, the corniness is intentional.)
Now, does that justify my entire day’s use of their coffee shop’s internet without a purchase of some type? On the surface, no. But if I spend the next three to five days encouraging people to buy coffee there (because I do my best to always be a man of my word) and I convince even just two people to go there…well then I’d say they’re better off than if I’d just bought one cup of coffee or one chocolate-covered Special K bar.
Doesn’t that work out better for everyone?
What do you think? Should reciprocity be a 100% tit-for-tat requirement? Do you believe in the “follow me, I’ll follow you back; promote me, I’ll promote you back” approach? Let us know what you think in the comments below, on Twitter, or on Facebook. (And if you follow us, we just might follow you back…you know…the whole reciprocity thing…)
Photo by auspices.
Sioux Falls: A Creative Scene Poised for National Success?
Have you ever been to Sioux Falls, South Dakota?
If you haven’t, you’re missing out.
Let me repeat that. If you haven’t been to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, you’re missing out.
Let’s back this up a bit. In a New York Times story Sunday (July 12, 2009), the Times talked about the thriving creative community of Minneapolis and their efforts to unite a large number of their creative agencies in order to better highlight the creative talent Minneapolis features. Another interesting element to this movement is the fact that they are also going to emphasize this newfound unity in a website called “MinneADpolis, the City of Advertising” (www.minneadpolis.com).
That’s all information you can get from the Times story, so read that when you have a chance. But there’s more to it than just the fact that they’re working together to make things happen…
Minneapolis is tired of being overlooked as a hot spot and hub for the creative marketing, advertising and PR industry. There are numerous worldwide agencies located in Minneapolis producing great work every single day (and plenty of smaller shops creating equally impressive work, locally and nationally). Frankly, many of these agencies feel they are getting glossed over by people assuming the only good creative work comes out of New York, California and Chicago.
Now that’s all fine and good. City pride, pride in local work and agencies, etc. Sure that’s important. But what’s more important is this:
They’re actually DOING something about it.
Keep in mind, this isn’t some happy-go-lucky, “we’re all friends here” realm of rainbows and sunshine. These are all companies who directly compete for local clients as well as national and worldwide clients. Whether it’s the larger firms going for larger clients across the country or the smaller agencies who are aiming high for those same large clients (as well as smaller, local clients), these 27 squads certainly have a reason to ruthlessly fight for every client they can get.
But they also recognize that connecting and working together will do more for their own agencies, their regional advertising and creative community, and the city of Minneapolis as a whole than they can achieve trying to scrap it out as individuals against NYC, Chi-Town, Cali and other major advertising markets.
Will there be problems? Probably. Will there be substantial success in the long run? Most likely. Is the creative community of Minneapolis attempting to do something that could change the game for “smaller” creative communities across the nation?
Yes.
Which brings us back to the beginning.
Sioux Falls is a fantastic place. Not only did CNN rank Sioux Falls as the 45th Best Place to Live and Launch in 2009 (citing that “it costs an estimated 45% less to open a business here than in New York”), but it’s also been named Forbes’ #1 “Best Small Place For Business And Careers”… FIVE years in a row (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009).
More importantly, between the stellar freelance community and strong presence of talented agencies, Sioux Falls is home to some of the most creative minds in this country (not region…country). I know I’m a little biased, but I genuinely believe there is an overwhelming number of extremely talented creative people who could do amazing work for major companies nationwide if given the opportunity. Yes, that was a ton of adjectives. They were all sincere.
So what’s the point? Well, as we in this region know, the Sioux Falls creative community is a competitive community. We want to do the best work for the best people and companies here. We want to do great campaigns for the biggest clients on the eastern side of the state, the western side of the state and everywhere in between.
I just wonder, if we work together a little bit more, whether we could be doing great campaigns for the biggest clients in the country.
Do I think we’ll be forming a “South DakotAD” group tomorrow and have national clients pour in by the dozens? No.
But we here at Deep Bench are willing to get the bus rolling now. Drop us a line if you want to come along for the ride and help us make our great creative community even greater.
After all…I did say that if you haven’t been to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, you’re missing out. It’s up to us to make the rest of the world realize how true that is.
What do you think? Does Sioux Falls have a chance to become a national hub of creative work from creative agencies? Are we destined to forever be considered a “smaller market” compared to other major cities? Share your thoughts below in the comments, on Twitter, or on Facebook.
Photos by jennlynndesign.
Does United Airlines deserve its social media punishment?
NOT Dave's actual guitar...
This post stems from a question asked by Scott Hale (a friend of Deep Bench) on his blog, “Social Situation with SJHalestorm” and a comment I left in response to his question. Scott examines the current ordeal United Airlines is undergoing at the hands of country musician Dave Carroll (more info on that can be found here) after United baggage handlers “threw his guitar around” and consequently broke it. What followed was a 9-month ordeal in trying to make United replace his damaged guitar (which might have been avoided if Dave had made a stronger attempt to resolve the issue on-site rather than after he’d spent a week on tour and then tried to report the problem).
The question Scott asks is an interesting one. Is Dave the “Hero” in this situation by overcoming the “giant” that is United Airlines and using social media to get his situation resolved, or is he the villain for taking advantage of social media to cover his own failure to make a stronger effort to resolve the problem immediately? If you read up on the story, you’ll see his side of the issue, but the elements not so strongly emphasized are the various ways he failed to address the situation from the beginning.
It’s an interesting question that I’ve thought about a lot myself over the past few weeks. More and more frequently, I’m seeing tons of stories regarding social media’s “success” in helping people get previously irresolvable issues resolved. Overall, I think it’s a good thing. Hold the big brands responsible for the errors of their ways. I’m all for the happy Robin Hood/David vs. Goliath stories that social media can help make happen.
But it was this specific situation that made me think, “Ok…maybe that’s his own fault for not walking up to someone and showing a United agent his broken guitar.” He mentions in his post that the employees all avoided him like the plague, and I can see that being the case at 12:30 a.m. in a relatively empty airport.
But still…did it really go down like that?
Here’s a question I have – What kind of outrage would United have caused if they’d revealed their whole side of the story (as it was happening) via social media? If they were sharing the details of this guy who had sent them dozens of emails over his “broken guitar” that he didn’t even check until the next night and didn’t present to them until after a week of shows before going back in and claiming that United “screwed up?” If the giants that are United had tried to paint Dave as the “bad guy” in such a public fashion, I’m guessing there’d have been some pretty strong blog posts and tweets against United about how poorly the “United idiot on Twitter” handled the situation.
With the way social media allows us to handle these not-uncommon occurrences, I wonder…are we basically taking a David vs. Goliath situation and leaving Goliath completely unarmed to fight any assault David can muster against him? That doesn’t quite seem fair to me. If United (or Best Buy, or Verizon, etc.) fights back, they’re seen as the big jerks who use their power to take advantage of the smaller kid on the playground. If they try to ignore the problem, they’re held accountable for “not getting it” or “living in the past” compared to how the world now works (courtesy of the great equalizer, social media).
It seems the only option left is to cave and fold simply because a YouTube video gets 2 million views or a guy on Twitter with 30,000 followers stages a complaint to his audience. Courtesy of an online following or buzz, David is not only becomes as big as Goliath, but he’s also got many more weapons at his disposal.
Finally, I’ll close with this thought: Until I have a bad experience with United, will all of this really affect me anyway? Sure I’ve read Dave’s story and watched his video, but if I want to fly to Los Angeles and United’s ticket is $40 cheaper than Northwest’s, I won’t be thinking about Dave’s story, I’ll be thinking about locking down that cheaper ticket. Yes, this situation points out a mistake they might have made, but I doubt it will affect my final decision when it comes down to ticket-buying crunch time.
Until they break my laptop or something by tossing it around. Then I’m writing a rap song about it and going off hardcore gangsta style on ‘em. Because I can’t play guitar yet.
What do you think? Is social media making things fair for everyone? Are people starting to take advantage of the opportunities social media presents or are the giants finally getting what they deserve? Let us know what you think in the comments below, on Twitter, or on Facebook.
Image by timparkinson
Why I Can’t Stand “A Case of the Mondays”
If you’ve ever worked one single Monday in your life, it’s possible (and probable) that you’ve heard – or used – the expression “a case of the Mondays” to explain a bad mood on a Monday morning.
I can’t stand that.
Call me crazy, call me closed-minded, call me unsympathetic (or just call me reasonable), but it drives me insane to think that people let something as completely intangible as a certain day of the week determine their mood and attitude for 24 hours.
I’ll admit there’s a difference between having a bad day that is coincidentally on a Monday and an actual “case of the Mondays.” That’s understandable. But am I the only person that goes crazy when a conversation with a person on Monday morning transpires like this? –
Me: “Hey, how’s it going today?”
Person: “Eh, it’s Monday…”
Me: (While internally shaking my head and repressing near-violent anger) “Alright, well…I hope it gets better for you.”
Person: “Oh, it’s just a case of the Mondays. Things should be better tomorrow.”
Wait, what?!
You’re going to spend an entire day being in a bad mood based on the logic that it’s the first day to your work week? Seriously? Is EVERY weekend you spend that magnificent that it makes you dread your entire first day back to work? You’re going to let one day bring a depressing and dreary attitude into the workplace, to infect everyone with your negative, “my environment controls my attitude” outlook on life?
Uh-uh. No way. Leave that garbage at home. That’s what I say. You have a chance to make every Monday an exciting and opportunistic day for you if you choose to make it happen. Mondays are a fresh chance to kick off a great week and spread an “I plan to enjoy my day (and make it productive)” approach to everyone in your office. Why pass up that opportunity only to replace it with negativity? If you can give me one good reason, I just might retract this post and apologize for my errors. And maybe shave my head or something crazy.
Bottom line: This post was inspired by a Twitter offer from a coffee shop in Sioux Falls (which has been very, very good to the Deep Bench crew) called Coffea: “50% off drinks today for anyone with a ‘case of the Mondays.’” the tweet read. I love their approach. I love that they are using Twitter to create a tribal experience (Seth Godin-style) of insider information. Like a secret password or handshake that actually provides value to customers. I love that.
But I don’t love “cases of the Mondays.” So I walked in, and asked if I “could still have a discount, even if I consider a case of the Mondays to be a good thing.” The response? “You know, if you think Mondays are a good thing, then I think you definitely deserve a 50% discount.”
I’ll say this: I respect and appreciate Coffea’s attempt to make everybody’s Monday a little bit better with a 50% discount (and I respect them even more for doing it with a social media approach). In fact, I’d even say that falls into Deep Bench’s “Do Good” aspect of our organization’s “Work. Play. Do Good.” mantra.
I just wish the rest of the world would try to approach Monday’s with a slightly more optimistic outlook. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking, but I think wishful thinking is the small push that helps start turning the gears of change. So, from now on, I’m going to try to spread my “Positive Case of the Mondays” approach by sharing some positive thoughts, concepts, and probably music on Mondays just to add a little optimism to the mix and maybe create a little change.
Because really, why would you want to let an outside force like the day of the week affect your chance to enjoy an entire day’s worth of opportunities for success?
It’s that kind of attitude that almost…almost gives me a case of the Mondays.
If you agree or disagree with Mike’s mindset or his analysis on cases of the Mondays, let us know in the comments below or drop us a line on Twitter at @deepbench. Although it’s unlikely, it’s possible he’s wrong, so please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts with us.
Box Scores: April 27-May 3 “Boob funds, blog posts, and YOUR help!”
While we typically load up Box Scores with plenty of posts we recommend you check out, we’ve had a busy week here at Deep Bench. With much of our focus aimed at the “Do Good.” portion of the Deep Bench mantra, we’ve spent a majority of the last week helping promote Mrs. Dude’s Boob Fund in order to raise money to help fight breast cancer.
So while it may appear that Box Scores are a little slim this week, we’re hoping you are able to contribute some links you felt were important and insightful from this past week. Just leave them in the comments section below (after reading Box Scores, of course), so both the Deep Bench crew and our readers can learn from them. Before that, though, here are some of our picks from last week…
-“The Next Twitter or Facebook is the Open Web”
This Steve Rubel post (which we featured in this post last Tuesday) discusses the future of the web and where it will go after Twitter or Facebook. It’s an often asked question in the online community, and Steve presents a great point. The web itself just might be the next step beyond Twitter. We’ve already started using programs that incorporate and streamline various elements of our social media experiences. Read up to see why Mr. Rubel thinks the open web is the next step.
-“Making commercials for the web”
Seth Godin discusses some finer points in using the web to craft and create commercials. He discusses important elements to keep in mind and warns of the potential risk involved. He also ends the post with this sentence, which, as a member of a small organization bursting with creativity, got me a little bit (very) excited: “The same way that there’s very little correlation between popular websites and big companies, we’ll see that the most popular commercials get done by little shops that have nothing to lose.”
-“25 Must Read Social Marketing Tips”
This Lee Odden post on Top Rank Marketing’s blog is almost too much wisdom and insight to get for free. Collecting the thoughts of 25 of the brightest minds in the online community, this post is a long post that’s worth reading every word. Whether you choose to or not is your call, but we certainly recommend you give it a read. You’ll learn something. We promise.
-“Ask a Question: Ten Reasons Why Questions Work & 12 Tips On How To Ask Them”
This Problogger site has been doing a countdown of 31 blogging tips to help bloggers become better at their craft. This tip is a smart one and helps bloggers see how to take an intelligent post from something that is read and then discarded to something that is read, responded to, and causes engagement for readers. The difference between those two levels is vast and important, so take some tips from Problogger to help yourself make that jump as a blogger.
-“How to Live Blog (or Twitter) an Event Effectively”
Rohit Bhargava comes through on his Influential Marketing Blog with ten tips on live-blogging an event in a productive and beneficial manner for everyone involved (you, your followers/readers, etc.). It may seem that live-blogging an event is easy, but once you’ve read up on Rohit’s thoughts, you’ll see why it’s worthwhile to use his insight to your advantage.
And those are this week’s Box Scores. As we mentioned before, much of our efforts have been focused on Mrs. Dude’s Boob Fund, so if you have any other posts worth mentioning, we strongly encourage you to leave a link or two in the comments section so we and our followers can check them out.
And while you’re at it, don’t forget to check out Mrs. Dude’s Boob Fund by clicking here. If you aren’t able to contribute financially, we simply ask that you pass along the link or information, whether it’s an e-mail, a tweet, or a Facebook wall post. You can help make a difference, so don’t hesitate to share Mrs. Dude’s Boob Fund with anyone, at any time.
A BIG thanks to our deep bench…
When it comes to things a college kid wants to do on a Friday afternoon, transcribing PDF data into Excel spreadsheets is probably pretty low on the agenda. Even for people who enjoy data input, Friday afternoon is the time when you finish your last class, sit back, and figure out how you can best utilize the few precious hours you have until your week starts back up again on Monday.
Well…here at Deep Bench, we’re not in college anymore. And as Friday morning rolled around, we realized we still had thousands of entries left that needed to be transcribed from multiple 30-page PDFs into Excel files.
By 4:30 that afternoon.
We needed help. We’d been pushing since Wednesday pretty much non-stop. Carpal tunnel syndrome was developing. Mental sanity had long since left us. The situation was grim.
But, like Gandalf cresting the hill at the Battle of Helm’s Deep and saving the day, an army of Deep Bench’s energetic young friends came to our rescue and proved why a deep bench is truly the best bench. Offering to take various chunks of PDF pages off of our hands, we were able to finish our work long before we had predicted. We also kept our sanity. The little bit we had to begin with, we should say.
So we’d like to personally thank Andrew Brynjulson, Scott Hale, Andrew Osborn, Kristen PIttenger, and Chris Bohlen for their efforts on Friday.
For the record, these were people who had no reason to help us beyond the simple knowledge that we needed help (well…we do plan to bring on Brynjulson in the future, but he technically wouldn’t start until this summer). To us, that goes above and beyond what any average college student would care to do. Especially on a Friday night.
So, for the record, we endorse these people and fully recommend them. If you are a professional in the business world looking to hire some young, energetic, and committed graduates who will make your life better and easier, these are some people you should take note of.
Not a single one of them needed to be asked twice. Not a single one of them complained after seeing the workload. Not a single one of them hesitated to help us in a time of need.
To us, that type of loyalty and eagerness to help is more valuable than just about any other quality someone could learn from college classes, social media conferences, or online seminars.
To us, those are the intangibles that make good players great and make great players superstars.
So…to the folks mentioned above, thank you for your efforts. We’re glad we can consider you members of our Deep Bench.
P.S. – As a side note, all of the aforementioned volunteers will be graduates of Augustana College. It may just be me, but it seems that quite a few brilliant minds have come out of good ol’ Augie…
It’s called “social” media for a reason…
Here’s an interesting reminder of where the focus of social media SHOULD be aimed:
Is it cheesy? A little bit. But, for the most part, Marc Meyer is right on point with his post on the Direct Marketing Observations blog (where I came across that image). For those of us working in the online community, sharing is an essential part of how we grow as professionals and learn from each other. Hence the name “social” media.
At Thursday night’s Sioux Falls Tweetup at Latitude 44, I talked with Brandon Tilus from Insight Marketing about this exact same issue. We wondered why it feels like so many organizations want to hide and hoard every bit of information they stumble across on the web. We wondered why it ALWAYS has to be competition rather than cooperation.
And really, there’s no reason.
There’s plenty of information to share. There’s plenty of information to be shared. There’s no reason why, as a community, the local social media scene can’t become one that’s tight-knit and helpful rather than covetous and secretive.
Because, really…are you more likely to find success doing everything on your own or by being a part of a community willing to share knowledge and wisdom at any given time?
I guess that’s your decision. But I know that we here at Deep Bench intend to be a resource to others wherever and whenever we can be a resource. We know we’ll do great work for great clients whether we share our social media secrets with the world or keep them all to ourselves. We’ve decided to share them.
Hopefully the rest of the online community is confident enough to feel the same way.
Do you know TED?
It’s pretty rare to meet someone online and know that your life has just been changed forever. However, from my first encounter with TED, I knew I had found someone (or something) special.
TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an elite gathering of our world’s thought leaders and innovators. Challenged to “give the talks of their lives,” the best of best are given the stage for 18 minutes to inspire and challenge the assembled notables. This year, TED celebrates its 25th birthday.
I believe the true power of TED comes from a decision made in 2004 to share its presentations with the world. Freeing these world-changing speeches from their $6,000 per seat auditorium was at the same time both generous and visionary. Whether you choose to watch it on their site or download it to your iPod, we all now have the opportunity to know TED.
This weekend, I was challenged and inspired by yet another TED alum, Benjamin Zander. His limitless energy and focus on maximizing the potential in others was the message I was looking for. I have accepted Zander’s challenge to make Deep Bench a “one-buttock company.”
TED 2009 (on Twitter @ted2009) is being held this week with speakers including Bill Gates, Tim Berners-Lee (credited with inventing the World Wide Web), Seth Godin, Herbie Hancock and a former professor of mine, Barry Schwartz. Do yourself a favor and stop by www.ted.com to check out the brilliance being shared.
-Hugh Weber
Ladies and Gentlemen… Deep Bench
You’ve heard the expression before – “That team’s got a deep bench.” Most sports fans know what that means. Most people in general know what that means.
So what does that mean?
A “deep bench” is what separates the successful teams from the mediocre teams. A “deep bench” is what makes the difference between teams that win championships and teams that simply make the playoffs a few times. A “deep bench” is what gives a team more options to compete in any field, at any level.
In that same vein, Deep Bench is an organization created to find efficient solutions – through consumer-focused strategies – to the problems that hinder the success of corporations, communities, and non-profits.
That’s right. Consumer-focused strategies. Deep Bench is NOT an “advertising agency.” Deep Bench is NOT a “marketing firm.”
Deep Bench is NOT the stereotype.
So, if you’re in the market to have your product or service shoved in the faces of a few thousand TV viewers or to have your consumers’ web browsing brashly interrupted by flashing banner ads or mass e-mails, then Deep Bench probably isn’t for you.
But, if you’re interested in creating a consumer foundation focused on brand loyalty and relationships between your brand and your customer, then you’ll probably want to work with the people who believe in developing authentic relationships that create experiences where the consumers live. Why? Because this will inevitably lead to loyalty to your product or service.
And why is a consumer’s brand loyalty more valuable than a 30-second TV spot that 50,000 people might watch?
Because, at Deep Bench, we believe that creating conversations and relationships that lead to 100,000 product evangelists who will help sell your product to 100,000 more consumers is more valuable than an expensive, 30-second TV or radio spot. Sure a newspaper ad looks good on paper, but when somebody skips page 9 of the “Life” section and doesn’t see your high-priced ad, then who is talking about your product or service?
Nobody.
And what do you think has more influence in today’s society – the barber who tells each customer receiving a haircut that he’d never buy any other brand of recliner than the one he sits in every night, or the ad on the back of the “Region” section of the paper that gets glanced over and tossed in the recycling?
I’ll tell you this. If my barber were that passionate about that recliner, I’d certainly be inclined to check out that brand the next time I need a new leather lounge chair.
So in the fast-paced technology world where word-of-mouth can have a stronger, deeper impact than any commercial or banner ad could ever dream of having, why not work with people who focus on building the brand loyalty that leads to a strong word-of-mouth buzz.
Because when you’ve got 100,000 evangelists spreading the word of your product or service to 100,000 other potential consumers…I’d say that’s a pretty Deep Bench.