FreeThink: a blog published by Maxwell PR
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Forget Kool-aid, I'm Drinkin' the Soymilk


As an agency that's often tapped to develop creative ideas for consumer engagement programs, I wanted to give a shout out to the new Silk Soymilk Greencap Project. The campaign is a great example of a promotion microsite that effectively uses a sweepstakes to drive purchase and integrates education and values-led marketing with sales.

Confession: I'm not a big soymilk drinker. But, this promotion makes me want to go buy some just so I can enter the lid on the site. To me it's a testament to the value of offering a great prize that resonates with your target consumer. A $20,000 green home makeover sure sounds good to me...and who knows, I might fall in love with Silk on the way to winning (I'm crossing my fingers on both counts).

On a more nuts 'n' bolts note, the homepage has a couple clear calls to action right off the bat, making it easy to figure out what to do when you get there. But then, if you've got a little extra time, there are several other features to fiddle with which make the site more sticky - and fun. I especially liked the share your green tip page. It's set up kind of like Kettle Foods' 25th Anniversary "Kettle Universe" page and creates a neat little feedback loop for visitors to talk to each other. Plus it's pretty and the tips fly around and drop in from the sky. Cute.

Check it out!

- Erica

posted on May 16, 2008


Coach Needs Some Coaching on Ethics

Adweek ran a story today on an incident that caused a stir in the blogosphere lately: the fake Coach campaign executed by PR students at Hunter College. The campaign included a fake scenario posted in Facebook and MySpace profiles, created by students in a class being taught by someone with no PR experience, with a curriculum paid for by a special interest group. In a nutshell, the counterfeit campaign violated PRSA's and WOMMA's ethics and contributed to the popular belief that marketing people are lacking in values.

The list of moral lapses is long and detailed in the Adweek story, so let's go straight to the kicker: Hunter student Sarah El-Edlibi says "Public relations people, in general, have very little morals when it comes to being completely honest with the consumer." Is this what we're teaching the next generation of PR professionals?

I'm willing to chalk this up to youthful naivety and hope that Sarah gets some perspective once she's finally out in the real world. In the meantime, Sarah, please don't bother sending us your resume.

- Jen Scott

posted on May 05, 2008


Follow the Money

We Maxwellites are pretty switched on about the power of peer-to-peer word of mouth recommendations that affect purchase decisions. At this year's Kitchen Conference, branding guru Lynette Xanders of Wild Alchemy challenged conference attendees to use the age-old 80/20 rule (80% of your revenue comes from 20% of your customers) and find the cultists who love your brand. Why should you focus on the people who are already buying instead of trying to lure in new customers? Xanders believes talking to your most fervent fans can give you insights and identify patterns they have in common with "low-hanging fruit" customers who should be your customers but are not.

Done right, we believe that this branding approach is as much about fans' ability to tell you what they love about the brand as their power to influence others. So don't be surprised when companies like Maxwell PR recommend consumer engagement initiatives like promotions, sampling and loyalty programs because we know they effectively allow brand and product advocates identify themselves so we can listen and learn a lot from them. They're a precious asset.

- Vicky

posted on May 02, 2008


Sacrilege: Not everyone can afford to be sustainable.

One of the reasons many of us work at Maxwell PR is because of our values, one of which is to live sustainably. What makes our office great is that we all come from different backgrounds and each of us occupies our own special place in what the Hartman Group calls the "World of Sustainability." That's a nice way of saying that not every Maxwellite has a compost bin in the backyard. But we do our part to live these values in a way that makes sense to each of us. With that being said, a post on treehugger.com this morning really irked me.

Treehugger contributor Lloyd Alter commented on a widely reprinted New York Times article this week about how rising food prices are driving Americans to buy the same "crappy" food they have always bought, but in cheaper versions. Rather than "cook[ing] more from scratch instead of buying prepared food" Alter is bummed people are choosing to continue buying packaged and processed foods. I don't mean to single the poor guy out, but this is something I've heard several times over the past two weeks from a variety of people. There's this underlying (albeit distant) hope that Americans will finally see the light and turn to organic and whole foods just because food prices are rising. We've heard the same exact thing as gas prices are rising higher and higher, yet you don't see a Prius parked in every garage.

Around here we talk about LOHAS consumers: lifestyles of health and sustainability. These are your organic food eaters and Prius drivers. They don't make those choices based on economics; they do it because it's their lifestyle. Asking someone to ditch a lifestyle they've known for decades can be pointless.

What's more, asking someone to embrace organic and sustainable choices can be down right rude. There's a presumption that it's easy. In reality there are lots of people who plainly can't afford - in time or money - the lifestyle. Organic food generally costs more. Raising your own vegetables and making meals from scratch takes more time. Buying FSC furniture is expensive. I was raised by a single mother of three who worked full-time. Looking back, the thought of asking her to choose more sustainable options is laughable.

Don't get me wrong, I believe in living a sustainable lifestyle but I'd love to hear from those that are privileged enough to have the option to do so acknowledge that they do so because they can.

- Jen Scott

posted on May 01, 2008


Diapers and Coffee: Talkin' About the Love Online

Thursday afternoon I took a break from my maternity leave to attend Kitchen Conference and listen to Jason Graham-Nye, co-founder of gDiapers and Brian Platter of Peet's Coffee & Tea talk about the ways they engage their customers and fans online.

As a mother of a wee one I have a particular interest in both diapers (for obvious reasons) and coffee (I can't even remember what it feels like to sleep eight hours in a row…bring on the caffeine). Both panelists had great case studies to share about how they tracked down the love online, harnessed it and put it to work to grow their brands.

gDiapers now has a network of "gMums" across the country (and the whole "mum" thing is for real…the founders hail from Austrailia) who sing the praises of the flushable diapers. Enticed only by a branded t-shirt and some free product these moms do everything from sampling at social gatherings to leading in-store demos. The devotion to the stylish and planet-friendly baby-buns-covers has resulted in moms creating a gDiaper myspace page, a mom-moderated Yahoo group and loads of message board conversations. By letting go of the World Wide Web reigns just a bit, gDiapers has allowed throngs of brand evangelists to feel empowered to spread the love online and, in the case of the gMums, take the virtual love back into the real world.

Peet's, in a more formal effort, recently wrapped up its online campaign asking fans to write stories of why they love Peet's and send their tales of love-at-first-sip to five friends. In exchange for the outpouring of love, those who share, and their friends, are entered to win free coffee for a year. The biggest learning Brian imparted was to work with what you've got - for Peet's that included a devoted and passionate fan-base as well as established infrastructure to collect the stories (an existing - mail list and Web program) and to ability to fulfill free coffee for a year through the company's mail order business.

One thing was clear from the presentations - both gDiapers and Peet's have dedicated fan-bases eager to engage with the brands and quick to spread the love...and both companies are doing their best to tap into online opportunities in innovative and authentic ways.

- Erica

posted on


  This spirited, open forum by Maxwell PR staff members, studio mates and colleagues features people who are, in our opinion, doing the right things to get people talking. You'll see us rave about organizations building communities and rant about those who are missing obvious opportunities. We sprinkle in a little marketing and PR rhetoric from time to time for extra vigor and enthusiasm, and will share observations and insight based on our own experience honing our craft every day.  
 

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