Have you noticed how time – arguably one of our most precious commodities – isn’t waiting for us to get our shit together? Excuses proliferate on why we put things off that matter to us: visiting a wizened, old family member before they head to the country, volunteering for a worthy cause we say we believe in, going back to school to learn something fresh, taking that ambitious trip we’ve talked about for years. Time – as the erudite ...
Want to connect to the green consumer? Help them stand out.
I recently listened to the Freakonomics podcast “Hey Baby, Is That a Prius You’re Driving?” and it got me thinking about consumption, specifically conspicuous nonconsumption, or conspicuous conservation. Call it what you want, the green consumer wants you to know they’re a good person–and that’s an insight that businesses can leverage to help change consumer behavior for the better.
Sustainable brands often try to blend ...
“There’s Nothing Here,” the integrated marketing campaign that we created for the Montana Office of Tourism, has won several big awards, including the first Silver Effie for a destination in a decade and Best Overall Campaign recognition from the organization that represents all of the state tourism offices in the U.S.
Why has this campaign been singled out by both the advertising and travel industries? Not because of the extremely cute name, and not because the judges were ...
At the end of September, I was invited to the Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference (ESTC) on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina.
I was asked to present during a session called “Understanding Key Consumer Trends Driving Sustainable Business Practices,” which fits very well into our wheelhouse here at Mercury. We work hard to understand the Geotraveler better than anyone else in the business, and so I had a lot to say.
My thesis? Don't lead with green, lead ...
We recently worked with Sustainable Tourism International to put on two webinars on social media, which I developed to be particularly useful to those in the Travel and Tourism sectors.
There were two sessions: one aimed at beginners and one aimed at more advanced practitioners. Both used cheesy yet effective metaphors to drive my points home.
My premise is that doing really great social media for your brand does not require learning a whole new skill set. It can seem ...
A few days ago a coworker sent me an eMarketer article titled Social Media Comes Up Short for Agency Prospecting. For me, the piece fell well short of supporting that title or even moving the conversation forward very far, and I'd like to discuss the reasons why.
The post was an attempt to take some interesting new research, in this case from RSW/US and RSW/AgencySearch, and distill it into some sort of new take on the state ...
Peru is on a roll. It's been four years since my last visit, and I've spent a week experiencing a staggering amount of growth in development and tourism since then. I am convinced that the next four years will bring even more growth to this amazing country.
Tourism is Peru's 3rd largest industry behind mining and fishing, representing 7% of GDP and is the country's fastest ...
Often, my colleagues and I joke about how amazing it is that my brain fits in my head. But, the funny part is, I’m not joking. My role here is to plan and put strategies in place to meet short- and long-term client objectives. Curiously, prior to my arrival here, my co-workers were busy executing award-winning campaigns. Who knew?
This past spring, MercuryCSC won an Effie award for our work on behalf of the Montana Office of Tourism. Even ...
Talking to your friends is easy. Talking to a stranger is harder. Where do you start? How much do you talk about yourself? How many questions do you ask? What do you do with your hands?
Jumping into social media on behalf of your sustainability- or tourism-focused business is similar. You're on Facebook and Twitter, and you feel comfortable there with your friends and family. It should be just ...
Here at the 16th best place to work, ever*, we recycle. We built a custom recycling bin system so we can more efficiently sort our stuff before an awesome local company comes to pick it up, we have a dishwasher instead of paper coffee cups, and we even have a colony of worms chewing up our organic waste and turning it into compost for our flower beds.
But we still had garbage cans. Lots of them. One under every ...
When I interviewed for my PR job here at MERCURYcsc, I knew I was walking into an airy, contemporary office where creativity and ideas must be on fire. I understood the Mercurians, whose profiles I'd read on the website, were all interesting people, doing good work while free-timing with surfing, spelunking, farming, fly fishing, crafting Adirondack chairs, photography, big game hunting and of course skiing. I didn't know I would laugh with my coworkers every day—and I ...
Photo by Mike Harrelson.
In a world where it seems we're never more than three LinkedIn connections away from anyone, I'd venture to say there's no form of marketing more effective than having happy people work for you.
And this is coming from the owner of an ad agency, mind you.
We are in the business of creating marketing ideas that help our clients sell more products. Yet running a good campaign is not the solution to ...
While I was in San Francisco last week, I had dinner with friends in Berkeley. After dinner one offered me his empty apartment to avoid the drive back to the city. It was a nice gesture that ultimately ended up falling flat when he gave me the wrong key. No worries, we're friends remember. I ended up just driving back to the hotel, got to ...
In 1976, visionary biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term "meme" in his first book, The Selfish Gene. It was his word for the informational equivalent of the gene: a self-replicating, evolving idea. The sort that occasionally hooks into a moment in societal consciousness and establishes itself in people's minds. Whether silly or profound, these memes represent a new way of thinking about some small part of our world, and we can't help but be affected by them.
For ...
"I saw on Facebook that you won an award," began the email from my sister-in-law. "And you actually showed up in New York to receive it so it must be a big deal. Congratulations!"
So it has been, winning our first Effie award. The type of work we do, the clients we work with, the people who work here, and the place we live are all so different from the big corporate agency world that dominates not only advertising awards ...