Category Archive

ICE PAK

Sense noun, verb, sensed, sens.ing.

1. any of the faculties, as sight, hearing, smell, taste, or touch, by which humans perceive stimuli originating from outside or inside the body.

Your five senses play an important role in your daily life. Every moment in your life, you use at least one of your five senses. You touch, hear, see, taste, and smell in order to adapt to a new environment.

ICE Factor is now appealing to those five senses by incorporating the ICE PAK! The ICE PAK brings all the different sights, smells, feelings, sounds, and tastes together in the form of a Backpack for your next corporate promotion!

ICE PAK is designed specifically for Street Teams to grab the attention of consumers and provide the ultimate “Innovative Consumer Experience!” The sleek and unique ICE PAK appeals to the five senses of each consumer as Street Teams promote, brand, and direct market your company!

“YOU DREAM IT - WE ICE PAK IT!” - contact me for your next campaign

Nathan Hewitt

nhewitt@icefactor.com

Street Teams in Chicago

Street Team Marketing in Chicago - Guerilla Marketing

If you’re a marketer and trying to find a reliable and effective Street Team in Chicago - I’m the contact you need (Segway Street Teams, Scooter Squads Campaigns, Classic Street Teams).

Nathan Hewitt

nhewitt@icefactor.com

http://www.icefactor.com/

Are you ready to take it to the street?

Make a lasting impression utilizing the Innovative Consumer Experience. Our ICE Street Team campaign will provide a unique and memorable experience by promoting, branding, and interacting directly with consumers.

The ICE Street Team is here to provide a personal touch to your targeted audience. ICE Street Teams can travel from destination to destination or remain in a heavy traffic area. The ICE street team is there to promote and brand the service and product at hand.

ICE street team can hand out products, interact with consumers, or even provide hands on experience with the Bluetooth® ICE ZONE campaign.

Tags: advertising, chicago, illinois, instant results, instant sales, marketing, product launch, promotion, street teams NYC, abstract, ad, ambush, ambush marketing, ambushchi, art, arts, branding, brands, campaign, chicago, culture, events, guerilla, illinois, innovation, la, launch, life, marketing, product launch, promotions, street, street team, team, viral

Chicago Scooter Squads - Ice Factor Street Teams

Interested in a campaign?

Please contact me:
Nathan Hewitt - nhewitt@icefactor.com

SCOOTER SQUADS
Are you ready for eye-catching media?

Make a lasting impression utilizing our Innovative Consumer Experience. Our Scooter Squad advertising campaigns will provide a unique and long lasting impression. Scooter Squads utilize scooters that trailer two-sided billboards. Clients can have ICE Factor’s Scooter Squads provide product samples, add impact to larger marketing campaigns, and provide an interactive and fun, eye catching experience. As scooters drive selected routes, they are sure to grab the attention of consumers and provide a memorable experience.

SEE THE SCOOTER SQUADS IN ACTION

“YOU DREAM IT - WE SCOOT IT!”

Chicago Segway ® Street Team - Ice Factor

SEGWAY® TEAMS

Interested in a campaign? - Please contact me

Nathan Hewitt
nhewitt@icefactor.com

SEE THE SEGWAY® TEAM IN ACTION

Bluetooth Proximity Marketing in Chicago - contact Nathan @ Ice Factor nhewitt@icefcator.com

BLUETOOTH® PROXIMITY MARKETING
What is Bluetooth® wireless technology?

Bluetooth® technology is how mobile phones, computers, and personal digital assistants (PDAs), not to mention a broad selection of other devices, can be easily interconnected using a short-range wireless connection. Using this technology, users can have all mobile and fixed computer devices be totally coordinated.

Why would a company want to utilize Bluetooth® wireless technology as a marketing campaign?

Imagine being able to automatically deliver an advertisment or a form of multimedia content , directly into a consumers mobile phone. Consumers can receive a variety of information as soon as they are near your store. Information can be sent as pictures, videos, coupons, ringtones, and business cards.

Bluetooth proximity marketing can also be known as “viral marketing.” Viral marketing is a marketing tecnique that facilitates and encourages people to pass along a marketing message voluntarily. A satisfied customer can tell a friend about a product or service from their experience and transfer the received Bluetooth content that could reach an unlimited amount of consumers.

• 100% Free Bluetooth® transfers for all of your customers
• Market pictures, videos, and store coupons
• Provide innovative and fun advertising to your target market

Do you have a visual example to help me understand this new media?

SHOW ME AN EXAMPLE

VIEW A PUBLISHED ARTICLE IN THE MEETING PROFESSIONAL

Interested in a campaign?

Please contact me:
Nathan Hewitt
nhewitt@icefactor.com

IceFactor.com

Iron Army Spring/Summer 2008 Campaign via Denimology

Here’s a first look at the new Spring/Summer 2008 campaign photos from the Iron Army. This denim label was started a couple of years ago by two Canadians who were buying thrift store jeans and then taking them apart and remaking them into something they liked. Soon the started manufacturing their own jeans and now they are based in LA and their jeans are stocked by Barney’s and Ron Herman. Anyone that has bought a pair of Iron Army jeans is invited to send in their photos and they will be featured on their website as part of the ever-expanding Iron Army.

Permalink

SETH’S PHILOSOPHY (SHORT VERSION, VIA HIS BOOKS)

1. For fifty years, advertising (and the pre-packaged, one-way stories that make good advertising] drove our economy. Then media exploded. We went from three channels to 500 hundred, from no web pages to a billion. At the same time, the number of choices mushroomed. There are more than 100 brands of nationally advertised water. There are dozens of car companies, selling thousands of combinations. Starbucks offers 19,000,000 different ways to order a beverage, and Oreo cookies come in more than nineteen flavors.

   In the face of all this choice and clutter, consumers realized that they have quite a bit of power. So advertising stopped working.

2. One insight is that marketing with permission works better than spam. In other words, delivering anticipated, personal and relevant ads to the people who want to get them is always more effective than yelling loudly at strangers. PERMISSION MARKETING addresses this issue.
3. Once an idea is in the hands of people who care about its success, it may be lucky enough to benefit from digitally augmented word of mouth. I call this an ideavirus. Modern ideas spread online and off, and this is faster and more effective than the old-fashioned centralized way of selling. UNLEASHING THE IDEAVIRUS is the most successful ebook of all time and you can buy the paperback for about $10. Feel free to look for the ebook online as well. It’s free.
4. It’s remarkable products that get remarked on. That seems obvious, but it flies in the face of the way most goods and services and business items are created and marketed. Boring is invisible. PURPLE COW is all about this.
5. The thing that makes something remarkable isn’t usually directly related to the original purpose of the product or service. It’s the FREE PRIZE INSIDE, the extra stuff, the stylish bonus, the design or the remarkable service or pricing that makes people talk about it and spread the word.
6. The controversial ALL MARKETERS ARE LIARS isn’t about lying at all. It’s about telling stories that people want to believe. It’s about the fact that people want bottled water, not tap, iPod Nanos, not Rios, and politicians who talk straight, regardless of the consequences… But most of all, it’s about authenticity.
7. Most of all, Godin believes that it’s possible to enjoy your job, to do the right thing, to be transparent, to give more than you get and to be successful, all at the same time. In fact, that’s sort of the definition of success, isn’t it?

TOP 7 ‘SETH’S BLOG’ POSTS OF ALL TIME

Small is the new big

How the net turns the advantage of the mighty upside down.

Don’t shave that yak!

How to get things done.

What makes an idea viral?

How ideas spread. The short version

Beware the CEO Blog

Well, beware the bad ones, anyway.

The new digital divide

It’s about attitude, not bandwidth

Two kinds of writing

For strangers and for friends, of course.

Death plus a fine

Just a photo

www.jcreport.com/current/

Brands, Bags, Books, and Blogs

Paris Fashion Week provided inspiration for this entire Brands, Bags, Books, and Blogs issue. Though our review of the breakthrough shows rounds out our runway coverage of the season, we also discovered the fabulous collections of Celestina and Bea Valdes — two Manila-based accessories lines that define Filipino chic — at the Vendôme luxury tradeshow. Meanwhile, at the 6267 showroom, we ran into Alissa Emerson filing her order for Edit, a just-opened Carnegie Hill, New York store selling brands that are sure to excite the uptown neighborhood. Since books were on the minds of many editors and buyers that we spoke to — particularly at a chance meeting at Colette — Fall Bookings profiles the must-read selections of the season. Blogs, meanwhile, represented the other reading material of choice for show attendees this season. While we lent our services to Style.com’s Style File, we also spoke with Imran Ahmed about his own blog, The Business of Fashion, as well as the general blogosphere.

New Books by Seth Godin

The Houdini Solution

Surrounded by Geniuses

I liked them both.

Also, comic book fans, if you haven’t seen this yet, it’s something that will thrill you.

And I just read Scott Adams new book, which he certainly doesn’t need my link to promote, and it’s exactly what you’d expect if you read his blog. He can write.

I’ve been reading a lot of Max Barry lately. Sort of what happens if an accessible Kurt Vonnegut starts writing about marketing.

And lastly, Fred has a challenge going on at Donor’s Choose. A very cool idea.

Saturday, September 01, 2007

For-profits planning events for cause, exposure

By Sarah Bzdega
Staff Writer

Saturday, September 01, 2007

The SWINE festival attracted about 1,000 people for an afternoon of sampling wine and pork creations. Co-host Melinda Toyne, owner of In Any Event, said the event did not bring in a lot of money, but provided exposure for her work. Photo Submitted

In the midst of a downtown revitalization and rapid suburban growth, Greater Des Moines is experiencing another phenomenon: an increase in events. Whereas Greater Des Moines residents used to find a few festivals a year sponsored by nonprofit organizations focused on bolstering community activity, calendars are now filled with multiple offerings.

Leading this trend are a number of for-profit businesses that are creating events as a way to add vibrancy to Greater Des Moines and often to support a charitable cause, in addition to generating exposure for their business and bringing in a small financial stream.

“I think we’ve been entertainment consumers for years, and a lot of us are building businesses around that experience in Des Moines,” said Kathryn Dickel, co-owner of Swaelu Media, who is working on a citywide festival for 2008. “It’s an evolution like everything else, an evolution of the entertainment industry.”

The effect is an increase in diverse cultural offerings, which enhances the quality of life and draws people to the area, said Greg Edwards, president and CEO of the Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau.

“What we’re doing is changing people’s attitudes and behaviors and patterns,” said Melinda Toyne, owner of In Any Event, who started this year’s SWINE festival. “It’s not once a month you have an event or festival to go to. It’s perhaps every weekend or every other weekend.”

Small firms, big events

In collaboration with Doug Bakker, a former colleague who now runs a vineyard and is director of the Iowa Wine Growers Association, Toyne introduced the SWINE festival this summer. The one-day event featuring Iowa wines and pork creations from Iowa chefs on Des Moines Area Community College’s Ankeny campus drew 1,000 participants and raised $1,000 for DMACC’s new viticulture and enology program.

“The goal in the first year was to break even and then make a donation back to DMACC, which we were able to do,” Toyne said. “I recognize that as being a success.”

Though the money Toyne pocketed from the event was not enough to make up for the amount of time she invested in it, she said it gave her valuable exposure. At least one person has contacted her about a potential project after attending the event.

“They enjoyed the experience,” she said, “and therefore saw that as a reflection on In Any Event’s work.”

Though running an event can become a profitable business venture over a few years, Toyne points out that the risk can sometimes be greater. For SWINE, she and Bakker provided most of the financial backing and had to handle details ranging from insurance policies to lighting and marketing.

“[Attendees] purchase a beverage for four dollars and think it’s pure profit,” she said. “That’s very much not the case. That’s why you don’t see more larger-scale events or only see them one time.”

Like Toyne, much of Nathan Hewitt’s work is for the cause, which often is to showcase fashion, art and other talent in Greater Des Moines.

Hewitt, who provides marketing and runway fashion show and event planning services through his business, Ambush, has worked on several events, including LoveStruck, featuring Des Moines’ most eligible singles, which drew 1,000 people and raised $16,000, $6,000 of which went to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Iowa. He also produced Glamour Girl Charm School, an edgy runway fashion show, which attracted 400 people, and Big Hair Ball through the Des Moines Art Center’s Art Noir program, which last year drew 1,000 people. Though he is moving to Chicago in a few weeks, he also is involved with planning Catalyst State: Iowa Design Weekend, which will showcase design in fashion, architecture and graphics on Nov. 16 and 17.

Most of Hewitt’s work is pro bono or for a small profit, but he said, “It definitely generates awareness for my company and for my creative input.” Even if clients are not looking for an event planner, he often acts as a consultant. Through connections from doing these events, he also has found ways to cut costs and collaborate with other people.

Still, he said, “it takes a lot of passion and a lot of energy. I don’t know if it’s my personality or if it’s just what I’m doing, but I don’t find a lot of financial reward in it.”

Companies want in

Thanks to the exposure they receive, many of these event-planning operations have found opportunities to work with larger companies interested in hosting major events.

Hewitt relates this to a lecture he attended at Iowa State University, where the guest speakers from Harvard University talked about the “experience economy” and how the service industry has evolved into needing to create memorable events so that consumers remember and connect with a product or service.

“I think you’re going to see more and more events and festivals hopefully sponsored by bigger companies and brands as they come to see more and more value from producing these events,” he said.

Hewitt is in the process of planning an event for a friend, artist Lee Ann Conlan, which in addition to having a band that does video installations and instrumental rock/hip-hop, could also feature Conlan drawing a portrait of a nude model at the event to connect people to her work, which often features nude female figure drawings.

Edwards agrees that more companies are looking at hosting events as a way to connect consumers to their brand.

“If you look at the trends across corporate America, probably in the last decade, all of these companies are now putting their names on things, from the big football bowl games to locally, like the Principal Charity Classic and Hy-Vee Triathlon,” he said. “I think corporations want to get their name out in front of the public in a different way and it shows they’re giving back to the community.”

Over the past four years, Toyne has helped organize and evolve Oktoberfest into a major event for Full Court Press Co., owners of Hessen Haus and many other bars and restaurants downtown. What started as a party in the bar parking lot has now evolved into a weekend event that expands into Fourth Street. Last year, 12,000 people attended, up from 8,000 the year before.

Though the Full Court Press owners assumed all the expense and liability and endured a couple of years before they realized a financial gain from the event, Toyne said, “it shows they have a broader goal for downtown Des Moines. Yes, they want to bring unique restaurants and bars to the area, but they also want to extend that in a natural way to a few special marquee-type events.”

However, a few other clients Toyne has worked with have decided not to pursue an event after she took them through a cost analysis and what they needed to do to make it happen. “At a glance, it may seem like a short-term investment for immediate return on a large scale,” she said, “but that’s not always the case.”

Future festivities

To lessen the risks associated with hosting an event, many event planners have collaborated with several partners, along with developing relationships with restaurant owners, musicians and other small businesses. Many also rely on sponsorships to cover a large portion of the expense.

When Dickel and her business partner, Heather Hansen, began conceiving of the FAMA festival (acronym for food, art, music and awareness), they decided to hold it the same time as the World Food Prize Harvest Festival and the Des Moines Marathon in October, so that the events could combine marketing efforts and draw more people to each event.

“It’s a trifecta that’s going to bring in an international crowd and a lot of people who are into nutrition and health. It has a lot of implications for food and the whole political dynamic,” Dickel said, pointing to how Iowa will be in the spotlight during the presidential election campaign.

The event, which has been put on hold until 2008 to allow more time for planning, will involve more than 50 locations throughout Greater Des Moines, featuring aspects of international culture, from world cuisine to international art and music. With an overall focus on world hunger, the event will also strive to raise awareness about that issue.

“There really hasn’t been a festival geared toward driving traffic into the businesses,” Dickel said. “Usually it brings everyone to a location.”

In addition to working with venues, Swaelu Media also has been working with many small businesses to receive services, such as printing and advertising, in exchange for sponsorships. The event also gives Swaelu an opportunity to integrate its work with several industries, including entrepreneurs, nonprofits and entertainment groups, into one effort, while creating a new product that the company can build upon and eventually use to generate money.

With so many people planning events of this scale, Toyne worries that competition for drawing people to an event could heat up. “If you’re the sole event, that’s more the exception to the rule,” she said.

However, Edwards believes the diversity of events will encourage people to attend several in one day. And as the city continues to grow, he expects the number of events to grow with it.

“I think we’ll continue to see some moderate growth,” he said, “I think as other new things happen around Des Moines, especially as the Principal Riverwalk is completed, I think you’ll see more events happening down there. All of the booming suburb areas are going to continue to see event growth, too, because it helps keep residents happy and enhances the quality of life.”

Des Moines Business Record - Saturday, September 01, 2007

Here is the Fall/Winter Pepe Jeans campaign featuring Sienna Miller. According to a spokeperson from Pepe “The goal is to create a feeling of a ‘pop world’ that reminds the viewer of Andy Warhol while maintaining a fresh and modern look“. (Source: RedCarpetFashionAwards) New Pepe Jeans Ad Campaign With Sienna Miller

The Viral Garden’s Top 25 Marketing Blogs - Week 66

Here’s the standings for Week 66:

1 - Seth’s Blog - 10,379 (-16)(LW - 1)
2 - Gaping Void - 3,679 (-85)(LW - 2)
3 - Duct Tape Marketing - 2,682 (-3)(LW - 3)
4 - Logic + Emotion - 1,397 (+1)(LW - 4)
5 - Diva Marketing - 1,139 (No Change)(LW - 5)
6 - Daily Fix - 1,080 (-2)(LW - 6)
7 - What’s Next - 1,011 (+4)(LW -
8 - Converstations - 990(-27)(LW - 7)
9 - Church of the Customer - 890 (-5)(LW - 9)
10 - Drew’s Marketing Minute - 855 (+5)(LW - 10)
11 - Jaffe Juice - 787 (-5)(LW - 11)
12 - Influential Marketing - 786 (+7)(LW - 12)
13 - Servant of Chaos - 699 (+7)(LW - 14)
14 - The Viral Garden - 643 (-80)(LW - 13)
15 - Brand Autopsy - 632 (-1)(LW - 16)
16 - Hee-Haw Marketing - 617 (-28)(LW - 15)
17 - Branding and Marketing - 594 (-6)(LW - 17)
18 - CrapHammer - 549 (-16)(LW - 1
18 - Customers Rock! - 549 (+2)(LW - 19)
20 - Marketing Headhunter - 522 (No Change)(LW - 21)
21 - Flooring the Consumer - 520 (-14)(LW - 20)
22 - Coolzor - 518 (No Change)(LW - 22)
23 - CK’s Blog - 500 (+1)(LW - 24)
24 - Community Guy - 480 (-20)(LW - 21)
24 - Marketing Hipster - 480 (-7)(LW - 25)

Don’t miss 515 ALIVE this Saturday July 28th in Downtown Des Moines - Iowa.

Amazing DJ’s, Dancers, Bands, and more. Be sure to check out Oh Possum on the main stage…

Check out 21 year old Minneapolis photographer Julian Murray

www.julianmurrayphoto.com

www.myspace.com/state612

Artist Statement :

My photography is more about the people than anything. Without the people, there are no photos. Over the past year I have been fortunate to meet and learn about some of the most real people possible. I’ve shot in multi-million dollar homes as well as the poorest project houses around. I learn from every experience. A thank you to those who I have met along the way, and for those I am yet to meet, I look forward to it.
Blessings

Girls With Shoehorns is an advertising capaign for Zu shoes, trying way too hard in our opinion, decide for yourself.

The brand that saved baseball

Seth Godin, Jun 26, 2007 10:20:14 GMT

Why doesn’t Puma or Adidas (or even Nike) pay the management of the SF Giants to bench Barry Bonds before he hits the record? Now you’d have a brand that really stood for something.

Why don’t local businesses buy $50 worth of quarters now and then and feed all the meters in town… just put a little flyer under the windshield wiper.

Once you change the rules, the sponsorship opportunities are endless.

[Brandon has a warning, though, for anyone thinking about parking meters.]

How to make a million dollars

Seth Godin, Jun 26, 2007 12:19:27 GMT

One popular method is to make a dollar in profit from each of a million people. Or a penny from a hundred million. This is the China strategy. It almost never works.

It almost never works because the challenge of reaching that many people is just too great. It’s too risky and too expensive. Doesn’t matter that you’re only hoping for a dollar or a penny. The price isn’t the challenge, it’s the difficulty in spreading your idea.

Far easier to make a thousand dollars from each of a thousand people, or even $10,000 from a hundred organizations. You can focus on a small hive of people, a group that talks to itself. You can push through a smaller dip and reach a level of recommendation and dominance that makes incremental sales far easier.

And you can learn much earlier in the process if you’ve gotten it right or not. Because you’re making more per sale, you can spend the time necessary to figure out what really sells and modify your offering sooner in the process.

The irony is that many products and services that have reached huge masses of people actually have significant margins (Windows, for example, or a cup of Starbucks). They got the best of both worlds because first they focused on winning small communities over and that led to the larger market.

i love this illustration by artist dylan martorell at matter in brooklyn.

Q&A: Seth Godin Says ‘Know When To Bail

I just read this book the Dip and it’s great - it’s a short read too!

In the mail today from Seth Godin:

In the mail today

Avinash’s new book about web analytics. Someone in your organization should (must) read this. Maybe you?

The “sitting-on-the-floor-is-not-boring, anything-can-be-designed-better” inspirational critbuns.

And a good old-fashioned selling book. (See page 117).

Full Story

1. Create real value. You can’t fake value. There are measuring sticks available to everyone. A service that truly makes someone’s life easier, a great bargain (value for money) or a product that saves lives or heightens the life experience and responds to emotional needs are all perceived as valuable to people. Clever marketing can’t compensate for true value.

2. Create that value together. If your entire team isn’t part of the creation of that value, they will not feel attached to it or compelled to communicate it effectively to others. Every member of your team should have a stake in the creative process - responsible for an essential ingredient in the pie.

3. Celebrate the value created. Show appreciation for value creation by regularly expressing how important each ingredient is - how instrumental every individual effort was in creating and continually improving the recipe. Celebration should occur before, during and after the process.

What better way to surprise that significant other than with a message secreted away in a coat pocket or under a pillow to be discovered later?

These small plastic vials are a sort of a “message in a bottle” to break all kinds of news. The possibilities are limited only by your sense of humor or decency. But seriously, these mischievous tubes are less than two inches long so can be hidden discreetly. It’s a way to leave a secret note with all the sweetness of a Damien Hirst-style reference to the pharmaceutical industry in the era of over-prescription. They’re just over $3 each from Poketo.

Shooting fashion spreads, art directing international marketing campaigns and designing tees, 24 year-old Kiwi Paul Darragh (aka Bemodern or Darragh-G) creates work that fuels inspiration. Leaving his homeland in 2003, Darragh moved to Melbourne, Australia where he was offered the position of Art Director for a publishing house responsible for marketing campaigns across Australasia with the likes of Lee, Wrangler, Mooks, Sass & Bide, K-Swiss, David Jones, Ted Baker and Royal Elastics. Darragh’s personal work has featured in the pages of XLR8R, Beautiful Decay, Empty, Kotori, Pulp, Blowback and STU, just to name a few. This August, Darragh will make the leap to New York. With contracts already been thrown his way, this is one artist definitely worth watching. Check out more on his Myspace.

post from Gap In the Void:

[One of the drawings I did for Seth Godin's latest book, "The Dip".]

Social Objects and Homeless People

So I’ve been thinking some more about Jyri’s Five Principles of Social Objects, especially how they apply to gapingvoid:

1. You should be able to define the social object your service is built around.In gapingvoid’s case, that would be the cartoons for the most part. The straight writing part I’m less concerned about.

2. Define your verbs that your users perform on the objects. For instance, eBay has buy and sell buttons. It’s clear what the site is for.

The verb that springs to mind is “share”. Not only do people re-publish them on their blogs, they’re also allowed to upload them onto other media for free: posters, t-shirts, stickers, whatever works for them. My licensing terms are pretty open.

3. How can people share the objects?

The key word here is “re-publish”. Microsoft’s Steve Clayton is probably the most well-known of my “re-publishers”, as he’s always using the Blue Monster cartoon for different things.

4. Turn invitations into gifts.

Again, the Blue Monster cartoon would serve as a good example. Microsoft employees hand out Blue Monster schwag as