Yvonne & I  are reading an excellent book on Social Marketing that has many great examples of successful campaigns. Run to the library to borrow it or to amazon to order it—Social Marketing : Influencing Behaviors for Good. We at Fearless Future are committed to making great social marketing and design that works for non profits but what if we are the target audience of a social marketing campaign—does it work on us—for sure!

I have a dirty secret! For many years I have been a secret smoker. Just one every now and then. But still this ad from Washington State Anti-Litter Campaign makes me think every time I think about lighting up in my car. It is a brilliant piece of social marketing. It is witty- Want to Litter ? Fine. It is specific—If you throw a cigarette butt out of your car in Washington State you could be fined 1,025 dollars.

It has made me change my behavior. Every time I think about smoking in my car, I wonder if there is a fine in Pennsylvania, the state where I currently reside. I wonder how much that fine is?  By the time I have thought through these things, well the knee jerk react to smoke has usually passed.

Below you will see two examples of President Barack Obama and his relationship to libraries. We hate READ posters because even someone as cool as Obama looks stodgy and staged. The other one which has been floating around the internet was made by a smart designer. This design could actually get tweens and teens to come to the library not to mention all us hipsters that still think we’re cool! When I posted this on facebook some of my college friends said we should make T-shirts and I’m still open to the idea.

READ Poster

All the cool kids

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 14, 2010

Media contact: Larry Godwin
Phone: 1-800-843-8482, ext. 2847
Email: godwin@amigos.org

Amigos Partners with Fearless Future to Offer Online Library Marketing Course

Dallas, TX – Amigos Library Services has partnered with Fearless Future, a design and marketing consulting firm with experience supporting libraries, to offer to offer Selling Your Library Without Selling Out! an online project-based marketing course for librarians.

Fearless Future instructors Mary Evangeliste and Yvonne Mery will guide attendees through the steps needed to create an effective marketing campaign. Class activities will be structured around the actual marketing needs of participants. In true workshop fashion, students will leave the course with a real marketing plan.
The course is scheduled for the Amigos online classroom the first four Mondays in March from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. CDT.

Describing the course, Laura Kimberly, Amigos’ Associate Director and Continuing Education Services Manager said, “This is an excellent course to take within the walls of one’s library and at the same time have access to the ideas of other students and knowledgeable instructors who span the country. Online technology allows us to offer students ample time to learn, develop, and apply new skills, and do so without incurring undue expense. Our participants will quickly find that Mary and Yvonne bring abundant energy and solid experience into the classroom.”

About Fearless Future
Fearless Future is a full-service design and marketing consulting firm committed to collaborating with non-profits and organizations that work towards the public good. Services offered include graphic design, visual identity, web design, print design, marketing consultation, marketing materials, marketing plans, workshops, group facilitation, communication positioning, publication audits, grant writing, and copy writing/editing. Mary Evangeliste is the Director of User Services and Outreach at Gettysburg College and co-author of Bite-Sized Marketing: Realistic Solutions for the Overworked Librarian, published by ALA Editions. Yvonne Mery is an Assistant Librarian at the University of Arizona, Tucson.

About Amigos Library Services
For more than 30 years, Amigos Library Services, www.amigos.org, has helped its members obtain affordable services and share library resources and knowledge. With over 600 members, Amigos is the largest consortium of libraries and cultural heritage institutions in the southwestern United States. Through membership in Amigos, libraries collectively gain access to the latest innovations and services in the library community; pursue opportunities for continuing professional education; leverage their buying power; and preserve the region’s rich cultural heritage. This collaboration strengthens each member’s ability to serve and lead its community in the creative and effective use of information resources. ###

Sorry we have been away for so long!

But, we have great news, you can now order our book Bite-Sized Marketing; realistic solutions for the overworked librarian!

ALA Editions, the publishing imprint of the American Library Association (ALA), announces the release of “Bite-Sized Marketing: Realistic Solutions for the Overworked Librarian,” by Nancy Dowd, Mary Evangeliste, and Jonathan Silberman. This book shares simple and cost-effective approaches to effective library marketing in a format that reflects the way people read today. Filled with contemporary marketing ideas, the authors provide:

• How-tos of guerrilla marketing
• Cutting-edge digital marketing practices
• Benefits of traditional print media

Visually compelling and thoroughly practical, this book challenges librarians to market libraries in new and original ways.

Click here to purchase it from ALA.

Contact us and we can get you a $5 coupon.

Stop what you are doing and watch this amazing video from Buck!

As part of Mountain Dew’s new logo launch, the brand team at Pepsi asked us to conceive, direct and produce a short animation exploring the evolution of the Dew Brand. We decided to take a walk through history (packed with historical taglines), starting with Dew’s country roots as a moonshine mixer and getting progressively more urban as we move to modern times. And all in 15 seconds!

[via Drawn!]

Okay, no one LOVES the pledge times for public radio and television, but some are less painful than others. The last two from Central Pennsylvania WITF have been down right awesome.

Ever since I was a young adult in DC I have tried to support public radio because I listen to it every day!

In February, right before Valentine’s day, WITF created a campaign called “show the love.” The pledge drive matched up donations with a delivery of a dozen roses. The drive encouraged listeners to pledge money and to show their love to both WITF and to someone they love or admire. It was easy way to remember to send someone some affection and also support the radio! I sent flowers to my mom and she was soooooo happy!

Now WITF is in the middle of their “plant a tree” initiative and they are partnering with the PA Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to create the WITF Woodland that will plant a tree for each person who pledges to the station.

Both of these pledge drives work because they have ADDED VALUE. The added value comes from getting something very specific out of pledging, In Feb it was flowers for me to send to my mom and now it is a tree in my name.

When you ask people to give money to your organization make sure you are adding value by appealing to the your audience’s values!

Mary and I have been working extremely hard on our new book with our good friend Nancy Dowd.

The book, Bite-Sized Marketing; solutuions for the overworked librarian, will be coming out this summer from ALA.
Keep an eye out for it!

I think this is amazing!

At San Francisco’s Pizzeria Delfina, they know how to own their pain. Rather than wringing their hands over Internet sourpusses who give them one-star Yelp ratings, they’ve printed up tees with excerpts from the most scathing reviews (“This place sucks”) and given them to the staff to wear.

[via Boing Boing]

I love the opening sequence for the new Showtime series the United States of Tara.

If you haven’t seen the show, it is about a woman named Tara (Toni Colette) who has dissociative identity disorder. The intro shows three of her other personalities. The first, Alice, typifies a 50′s housewife. The second, Buck, is a cigarette-smoking, Lynard Skynard-loving, Vietnam vet. The third, “T”, is a perpetual 16 year old with all of the typical vices: boys, booze, and bong hits.

The into was directed by Jamie Caliri using stop motion. You can read a little more about the production here.

Jamie also directed one my all-time-favorite commercials.

I know we have been on a little bit of a video kick here, but I saw these and wanted to share.

Credits:

Advertising Agency: Rethink, Vancouver, Canada
Creative Directors: Chris Staples, Ian Grais
Art Director: Chad Kabigting
Copywriter: Katie Ainsworth
Graphic Designer: Rory O’Sullivan
Producer: Ann Rubenstein
Account Services: Tricia Bradshaw
Client Supervisor: Bill Rice
Production Company: Holiday Films, Toronto
Director: Adam & Dave
Executive Producer: Josefina Nadurata
Producers: Josefina Nadurata, Chris Pavoni
Director of Photography: Jonny Cliff
Editorial: Melanie Snagg, Tonic Post, Vancouver
Music/Sound Design: Chris Hobbs, Koko Productions, Vancouver
Visual Effects: Tonic Post, Vancouver

[via Adsoftheworld]