4-H for President

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Noel Ritter

Some of us here at Big River recently visited several 4-H clubs to take a closer look at the “uber kids” we’d heard so much about. The stories were intriguing, to say the least. “A 4-H’er lifted a tractor off my head while reciting the pledge!” “One 4-H’er in our club found a loophole in ‘age requirements’ and is running for President.” “I saw a 4-H’er head-butt a rattlesnake.” Okay, those are slight exaggerations, but that’s what it sounded like to me. Continue reading →

The Big “O”

Posted on November 8, 2010 by Rebecca Redington

Big River’s first work for 4-H launched with the Revolution of Responsibility (#4Hstories) movement. Seven (of the more than 6 million young people that make up 4-H) 4-H’ers and their leaders are featured in documentaries, print, social media, TV, Web, and radio. Each of these seven 4-H’ers tell a piece of their own Revolution of Responsibility story, inviting others to join them in this movement. Continue reading →

Make it matter

Posted on October 27, 2010 by mjennings

The new NBA season tipped off yesterday and for the first time in a long time I’m genuinely excited about it this early on. No, really. My annual fantasy draft usually gets me hyped up for the start of the season, yes; but to be honest, even as a hardcore hoops fan, over the past few seasons my enthusiasm quickly faded, returning full force only during the playoffs. This has nothing to do with the fact that my fantasy squad is the perennial underachiever. I digress. Continue reading →

Branding Your Business: Where You Need To Be

Posted on October 12, 2010 by admin

Let’s say you are a professional organization where success is largely dependent on how much your clients trust you. Maybe you deal with important stuff that matters a lot to people, such as finances and investments, business counsel, legal advice or their health.  How should your organization be seen today? What is your stance? Your voice? What makes sense and is attractive to people, given the incredibly scary period out of which we’re just starting to crawl?

Or, as we say in the marketing biz, what is your most advantageous position on the spectrum of the impressive, authoritative, big-guy answer at one end, and the friendly, approachable mom-and-pop solution at the other? Many organizations feel that now is the time to convey a solid (some would read arrogant) position. This all-knowing marketing stance, they reason, will eliminate any uncertainty or fears about their weaknesses. Continue reading →

Sanitation Collector or Community Builder? The Difference Is Purpose.

Posted on October 6, 2010 by Molly Winegar

You hear it all the time: the key to a successful organization lies in its people. At Big River we say, “People believe people” — meaning that your brand is delivered through your people and the experience they create for your consumers. But how you make it happen is so simple, yet so very hard.

Here’s an example of how it’s done. Two New York sanitation workers, Angelo and Eddie, were featured on Story Corps on NPR’s Morning Edition. (If you are not familiar with Story Corps, it is an NPR project that gives ordinary people an opportunity to record their stories. Select stories are aired as part of Friday morning programming.) It is worth the two minutes to hear Angelo and Eddie tell their story.

So how does their story hold the key to delivering on your brand through your people? Let’s break it down …

Continue reading →

Your employees are your brand

Posted on September 30, 2010 by admin

In February, Forrester Research released a study about the future of advertising. Edward Boches, Chief Creative Officer at Mullen, blogged about the report. According to Forrester, consumers trust consumers more than they trust brands, and 50 percent say that brands don’t live up to their promises. (The future of advertising agencies)

A recent panel discussion on ethics at the University of Richmond, titled The Values-Based Firm, underscored the implications of the Forrester findings. “Companies need to make their values more than just a placard pasted in the break room,” stated panelist Joseph Kunkel, Senior VP of Marketing for CarMax. ”At CarMax, our integrity we bring to selling cars is instrumental. That core value can’t change.”

Continue reading →

Fail Forward

Posted on September 10, 2010 by Kelly Slothower

I keep hearing people say “don’t be afraid to fail.” That sounds like a nice way to live. I’ve always wanted to take more risks in life. In fact, I have a list of things I want to do before I die – one of them is to fail loudly. To really take the plunge and go down screaming in a way that people notice. Wouldn’t that be great fun?

We all like to laugh at fools, but can we be serious about allowing for failure in business? Most of us talk a good game about wanting to see people taking risks and learning from mistakes, but how many of us are truly willing to forgive for their failures? Do we allow for some failures (e.g. harmless) and not others (e.g. catastrophic)?

Take the BP oil spill for example… No way it isn’t a tragic story on many levels. But how many of us are willing to forgive them? They failed. The CEO failed. Our government failed. We all failed. Will BP forever be marked with the brush of failure or be applauded for boldly trying? Does this failure taint all their other successes in renewable energy and technology ?

Sure, we’d all rather this didn’t happen – but look how much we’ve learned from their failure.

Without failure, we wouldn’t know success.

Changing Behaviors

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