Grady Britton

Difficulty adjusting to civilian life, mental health issues, and high suicide rates are just some of the personal battles facing returning military, vets and their families. When they’re hurting, we all hurt; and it’s critical that they know help is just a phone call away. That’s why we’re proud to award this year’s Grady Britton $25,000 Grant for marketing services to Oregon Partnership to help spread the word about its new Military crisis line – 1-888-HLP-4-VETS. Find out more about the work this amazing organization does in our community and about the new Military HelpLine at orpartnership.org

Yet another reason to love Portland: the tremendous number of non-profits doing remarkable work in and for our community. This year’s response to the annual $25,000 Grady Britton Grant for marketing services surprised and humbled us. In fact, we’ve had so many applications, we’re taking just a few more days to evaluate them all, and will announce the grant winner Friday, July 30.

We thank you for your patience and understanding, and for all the work that went into filling out each application. And a special reminder to those not chosen–2011 is just around the corner.

We ask ourselves that question anytime we’re folding these into a communications mix. Like anything advertising or message-related, there’s an art and strategy to making display ads interesting. We spoke to Yahoo! Advertising about this last week.

On a separate note, this Yahoo! Advertising blog is a good one to slot into your reader, btw. Smart people, good perspectives. We like.

(PS. Full credit on the Newport rich media ad referenced in the article goes to senior creative team Mike Proctor and Julie Talbot, as well.)

We often find clients anxious to participate in social communities without understanding the investment of resources that goes into valuable social participation.

Because there is so much buzz around social, and because starting a social account takes only seconds, it’s uber-tempting to just jump in and shoot from the hip. Easy, cowboy. How many of your other marketing efforts would you approach like this?

Relationships are the rewards of a valuable social presence; and you should know by now that good relationships don’t just happen when you decide to jump into one.

Valuable social presence requires strategy just as being able to kick a ball hard won’t win you the World Cup. Recognize the importance of your soon-to-be relationships, the commitment it will take to grow them, and the opportunity it provides you to put your A-game out there. Then consciously decide to go all in on your terms.

This list will help you gauge your commitment to having a valuable online presence: 9 Things to do Before Entering Social Media

Do you have a social success story where planning a bit of strategy up front saved you from disaster? Are you running a social presence now? If so, what sort of a time commitment has worked well for you? Please comment below.

[Flickr image from °Florian]

Nice new site we designed & launched for Portland-based Kavi. Worth noting too is the tight, new brand expression (The Engine of Done) throughout. Main objective was to streamline and un-jargonize how this dynamic business collaboration software company presented itself to the world and their key audiences.

Best use of PR is before you need it.

But in the event of an emergency (say, in an unfavorable court ruling), then what? KGW stopped by yesterday for some PR 101 pointers from our own Becky Engel and Paige McCarthy. Full story here.

Interesting social media podcast @Dayn turned us onto. This episode discussing real-world social media use by a burger company based in Boston. Our own @BurgervilleUSA gets referenced several times. [ This Week in Social Media. ]

Click and let it roll in your background; Burgerville mentions begin around 25 min in and several times later.

Oh, and not that this is news, but: #chocolatehazelnutsmoothiesFTW!

Really nice press on our long partnership with First Independent, courtesy of US Banker this week. Our own Paige McCarthy shares some of the thinking behind the work.

Agencies, this is the kind of client relationship you dream of.

(To be continued.)

A great day on the internets: Yesterday we helped Earth2o (“earth – 2 – ohhhh”) launch its brand spankin’ new website— part of the refreshed brand work rolling out for Earth2o, including a fun TV spot (aired last night), produced with our friends at Laika. More than a site to talk about bottled water, it’s a great story about a company’s quiet, passionate commitment to doing business the right way.

Thanks for the opportunity to share your good with the world, Earth2o.