Gracie Communications

by Jennifer Stringer

In March, I started a series of posts called “I Spy with My Marketing Eye” to admire creative, memorable ways my fellow communication professionals speak to their audiences/customers.

Here is what I have my eye on this month:

The conventional wisdom used to be “avoid all things in May not Indy 500 related”. Obviously the team developing the marketing for the new Indianapolis Cultural Trail did not get that memo – and I’m glad.

The new trail opens this Friday, May 10, and the big family-friendly “Get Down On It” celebration is Saturday.  The tagline Get Down On It is great at capturing the idea that you have to actually come and be a part of this celebration to fully “get” what the trail is all about.  Because it is so much more than a walking/biking trail.

The day’s festivities are so diverse from chalk drawings, fitness, food trucks, a smartphone scavenger hunt and more.  Now if only they could get Kool & the Gang to make an appearance.

What caught your eye?
Drop me a line and include your name, company name, what caught your eye (tag line, logo, commercial, brochure, etc.) and what you like about it. I’ll share here on the blog, so we can recognize good work and we can all get better at our craft. This goes without saying (but I guess I am saying it): This space is to give kudos to your peers, so no self-promotion of your own work. Thanks.

Posted by Lisa Sirkin Vielee

Already the experts are saying the boost to Indianapolis from hosting the Super Bowl may be short- term and not as robust as the city may like. While city leaders tally the results and marketing and social media analysts, like Exact Target, crunch the numbers from the Super Bowl, I think any report about the impact of hosting the big game is premature.

Let’s face it folks. Indianapolis has only played half the game. Yes, Indianapolis hosted and executed a near flawless Super Bowl. Yes, it is important to assess what we’ve done so far. It’s okay to pat ourselves on the back for 5.7 million tweets, 1.1 million visits to Super Bowl Village, 8,000 volunteers and countless celebrity sightings.  But we still have a way to go to create a positive economic return on the Super Big investment and capitalize on the city’s national brand exposure.

Here’s what we, as marketers, social media experts; heck, as residents of Indianapolis, need to do next to help the ICVA, Indiana Sports Corp. and others make the big plays:

1. Don’t stop tweeting, writing and bragging about Indianapolis. Jolene Ketzenberger has a terrific story in The Indianapolis Star about celebrities shining a light on local, independent restaurants during the Super Bowl.  We have some great restaurants in this city. So the next time someone claims Indy is the chain-restaurant capital of the world, look them in the eye and invite them to meet you at Recess. Or R Bistro. Or Goose the Market. Or Ball & Biscuit. Fly them in if you have to. Just dispel this and the other many myths about our city.

2. Volunteer for IDI to help develop the plans for the Georgia Street corridor.  Don’t just wonder if Georgia Street will get the right mix of patio dining and cool events, be a part of making it happen.

3. Support local bands, events, museums and arts districts. The outlying areas had mixed reviews when it came to Super Bowl traffic. That’s too bad, because there are so many great places in central Indiana to experience. Use the Super Celebration Sites map as your guide and be a tourist in your back yard.

4. Enjoy the legacies of the Super Bowl. Visit the 46 for XLVI murals, go see the Chase Near Eastside Legacy Center (the Legacy Fitness Zone is free in February), and donate at the next Komen Tissue Bank SuperCure event on March 10.

5. Come up with the next the big idea. As the Super Bowl showed us, even scarves can become a big deal. We all have great ideas. But are we willing to do the hard work to make them happen?

6. Send convention leads to the ICVA. You may not work with the NFL but you might work with the top brass in your industry or field.  The next time you go out of town for a conference or training session, invite the event planners to consider Indianapolis for its next regional or national level event. There are plenty of hotel rooms and meeting space to go around – and they won’t fill themselves.

7. Stop the inferiority complex. When I was a teenager and would get in a mood, my father used to tell me to “pretend to be happy.” Sound dumb? Well it worked more often than not. So why not “pretend to be a big league city”? If we stop comparing ourselves to our larger counterparts and start taking pride in what we have to offer, we may just find others comparing themselves to us.

Twenty years from now, Hoosiers will talk about the Super Bowl the way we currently talk about the Pan Am Games – as a game changer. We are in the middle of changing the way our city is perceived and recognized.  But we aren’t even in the red zone yet. We can’t stop now, the momentum has just turned our way.

Image from flickr/indywriter

Earlier this week, I bought two designer coffees for a client meeting and spent just under $10. In less than an hour both coffees were gone and the cups were recycled.

Tomorrow, as part of a World AIDS Day text-to-give campaign – #knowpositive – for the Indiana AIDS Fund, I can text KNOW to 20222 and donate $10 for a rapid HIV test. With a rapid HIV test, someone can know whether or not he or she is HIV positive in less than an hour. And if the test turns out to be positive, she or he can get into care management and treatment that much faster.

Same amount of money. Same hour. Hugely different impact.

Not only does an HIV test put the person taking the test “in the know,” it also prevents the further spread of the disease by an unknowing carrier. With national statistics showing that 1 in 4 Americans with the disease don’t know they have HIV, it is as important to get an HIV test as it was 30 years ago when the first case of AIDS was diagnosed.

25% of those who have HIV don’t even know it. It’s a sobering statistic. But in this age of social media, we can all do our part to change that statistic. And that’s pretty empowering.

Here’s what you can do:

1. Text KNOW to 20222 tomorrow to donate $10 for an HIV test for someone without insurance or on the margins of society.

2. Tell others about the #knowpositive campaign on December 1. Donate your Facebook status update for the cause. RT a #knowpositive tweet. Follow the Indiana AIDS Fund.

The Indiana AIDS Fund’s goal is 500 tests in one day. Will you join me in helping them reach it?

Six years ago when I started Gracie Communications, one of my first priorities was to establish a giving policy for my business. Supporting causes and worthy nonprofits, especially in my greater Indianapolis community, has always been important to me personally. As a new business owner, I decided to demonstrate my commitment to philanthropy by designating a percentage of my gross earnings to charity. You might be surprised to know that’s not as simple as it sounds. That’s why I’m asking for your help. (more…)

There is a lot that a communications campaign can do, but it can’t take the place of good, old-fashioned customer service. There are many companies out there that talk a good game but how well do they really listen to their customers and try to meet their (ever-changing) needs? (more…)

If you are under 18, you aren’t reading this blog post. But if I texted it to you, you might.  Texting is the single most popular way for teens to communicate. Earlier this week, a few Indy area teens helped me understand why. (more…)

On Thursday, I attended the Indiana Cultural Tourism Conference. I was disappointed about the sparse crowd, especially after keynote speaker Andrew Taylor, Director of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at the Wisconsin School of Business, shared his views about the concept of place in the Internet era.  (more…)