Free Think

March 1st, 2010

Marketing in Facebook: How to Run Effective Promotions, Campaigns and Contests

On Feb. 19th, a packed house of PDX marketers joined Kevin from StepChange as he filled us in on the tricks to tapping Facebook for promos, campaigns and contests.

If you didn’t know, it’s all about the app (and the advertising).

Make your own donut, find the perfect gift for your tech geek, prove how well you know your fifth cousin – AND WIN! But more than win, brands are banking on fans to talk. Share the brand, spread the word and, ultimately, BUY.

But first – brands have to buy something of their own: the fans. According to Kevin, if you haven’t yet established a Facebook presence, well, you don’t need him (yet). Set up a page, make some ads, pay to put them in front of your target audience and purchase yourself a nice set of Facebook fans. Yes, tell your loyal base of customers to “Become a Fan” via your website, e-newsletter and traditional advertising. But then find the rest where they already are – on Facebook. The secret is that if you think they’ll flock to you all on their own, you’ll wait a long time. Maybe forever.

The most important take-away? If you’re a brand, you will always overestimate how excited your customers are about your brand.

Still, if you build it (and advertise it), the fans will come. And they will play. And they will share. Just figure out what they’re interested in (hint: it might not be what you’d LIKE them to be interested in) and get them talking. Then, give them something to do – play a game, take a quiz, make something. Reward them for trying – “Enter to WIN!” And don’t forget to have a plan for what happens next.

- Erica Erland

February 26th, 2010

Taking it to the MAX

Maxwell PR was proud to be honored last night at the eighth annual MAX Awards, sponsored by AMA Oregon.

Travel Oregon, Robeson Communications and Maxwell PR won for best Integrated Marketing Campaign – Nonprofit or Government with work on the Oregon Bounty Cuisinternship Contest. The contest, which awarded seven lucky winners with week-long internships with well-known culinary personalities from around the state, was Travel Oregon’s most successful campaign ever. We had tough competition for this award from amazing entries like The Oregon Humane Society’s End Petlessness campaign, so we were humbled by this win. We are very appreciative of Greg Robeson, Wieden + Kennedy, eROI, Substance and the entire Travel Oregon team for their hard work on this integrated effort.

OBAward

The highlight of the night was Jennifer Maxwell-Muir’s win for Marketer of the Year. For the judges, her win came down to “the amount of time and energy [she] gives to sharing [her] time and outlets to numerous constitutencies throughout the community, and truly advancing the level of marketing throughout our region.” Sadly, Jen missed the event due to an out-of-town client meeting, but Vicky accepted the award with a heartfelt speech that reflected Jen’s sentiments as well as the mission and values of Maxwell PR. We are so proud of Jen and can’t wait to present the award to her when she gets back!

Team

Click here to see the full list of winners. Congratulations everyone!

- Michele Cover

February 26th, 2010

Jen Maxwell-Muir is Oregon’s Marketer of the Year

JMM
Original and insightful. Always a step ahead. Driven to generate results for clients. These are only a few of the innate qualities of the remarkable Jennifer Maxwell-Muir, named Marketer of the Year by the Oregon Chapter of the American Marketing Association at is annual recognition event last night.

Dazzling us – and the MAX Awards judges – with her creativity, she aims high and hits the target every time. Not one to seek the spotlight, Jen prefers to celebrate the agency team’s efforts by building clients’ brands in authentic ways that resonate with consumers and expanding the traditional boundaries of PR. It’s an honor to have Jen and our work recognized by our peers. This is possible due to clients who value creative, authentic work – and we are so lucky to have them in spades.

Like all businesses, Maxwell PR faced economic challenges in 2009. Yet in spite of what was happening in the marketplace, Jen not only ensured we provided award-winning work for ongoing clients but continued to grow the agency. This was all done in alignment with the agency’s values of giving back as much as possible to the community and being kind to the earth and the people who inhabit it. A highpoint of the year was in November when Ad Age magazine named Kettle Foods one of the Hottest Brands of the Year based on our PR-driven consumer engagement campaigns and no advertising.

Jen built Maxwell PR by trusting her instincts, sticking to her principles and nurturing her team of talent. Staying in sync with trends to ensure that our work is relevant, Jen contributes brave, creative ideas that resonate and generate results, regularly evaluating our communications programs and applying key learnings along the way.

Congratulations, Jen, and thank you to our wonderful clients!

- Vicky Hastings

February 22nd, 2010

Professional Jugglers

iStock_000001708019XSmall_crop If you’re like Nina Lentini, you’re doing your level best to keep up with the constant demands of this 24/7 world of instant communication. At work, we’re all pressed to produce as much as possible, often with smaller teams than in the past and more communication tools – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, blogs, newsletters – than ever. No one knows where it will all net out, but it’s unlikely that the work day will ever be the same again. In the meantime, we keep those plates spinning and are getting better at it every day, reveling in the shifting media landscape, looking ahead and guiding our clients through unchartered waters.

- Vicky Hastings

February 19th, 2010

Be A Souper Hero

We launched a new campaign with Pacific Natural Foods this week! We’re forming a team of Souper Heroes to fight hunger, one bowl at a time.

To join our hunger-fighting force, simply become a fan of Pacific Natural Foods on Facebook. For each new fan, Pacific will give a box of healthy, all-natural soup to the Oregon Food Bank. The more fans they get, the more soup they’ll give.

Up, up and away!

- Laura Herbert

February 11th, 2010

What Would You Do For A Good Night’s Sleep?

Man sleeping
Turns out some people would do practically anything for the elusive good night’s sleep. But, since the FTC doesn’t think a brand should coerce people into doing its marketing for them, Simmons Beautyrest might want to reconsider its Twitter-based contest that gives consumers the opportunity to win a mattress if they tweet a message stating what they’d do to have a good night’s sleep. The tweet must include #simmonsbeautyrest and the URL http://bit.ly/beautyrest. Check out the entries here. And make a commitment to not exploit your fans.

That’s all. Nighty night.

- Vicky Hastings

January 27th, 2010

For the Love of Meat

Meat carver Leslie Cole’s recent article in The Oregonian highlights two Portland organizations supporting ethical butchering. Zenger Farm is launching butchery and curing classes – something there’s been a growing need for as backyard chicken coops have become commonplace in Portland. The Portland Meat Collective (PMC), created by former Portland Monthly Editor Camas Davis, is a meat CSA and traveling butchery school rolled into one. Both organizations are promoting a closer relationship to food, responsible animal husbandry and more sustainable and ethical meat consumption.

With the 2008-09 national obsession with all things bacon, urban America’s rediscovery of organ meat, and an increasing number of eateries taking Portland restaurant Beast’s meat-centric offerings to another level (see pdx’s newest meat lovers paradise Olympic Provisions), I wonder if this love of meat hasn’t become a wee bit fetish-y. Cole’s article opens by describing Livestock, a sold-out, two-night event at the Art Institute of Portland’s culinary school where an audience watched the butchering of a pig, ate meat hors d’oeuvres and took in literature about what it means to eat meat. I am grateful for the Zengers and the PMC’s of the world for shedding light on a part of our food system that is widely out of sight, out of mind and for recognizing butchering as a valuable craft. But it seems we’re walking a fine line as ‘ethical carnivores’ when we sip wine, in evening attire, as a pig is cut open in front of us.

- Molly Cooney-Mesker

January 14th, 2010

On the Road with Oregon Bounty

The fourth year of “On the Road with Oregon Bounty” wrapped up in November, and once again it was a great culinary road trip. I traveled nearly 1,200 miles to all seven regions of the state, meeting the producers who served as mentors in our “Win an Oregon Bounty Cuisinternship” contest. In early September, I served as a roving reporter for seven straight days on radio stations in Portland, Seattle, Sacramento, Spokane, Eugene, Bend and Medford, reporting each day from a different part of the state and inviting listeners to enter the contest. Four weeks later, when the winners had been selected, I went back on the air for another series of reports to announce the results and talk about their winning videos. Below are some samples of my reports on various stations.