Having ridden in the past three summers’ events, I can tell you they are legitimately fun, well-organized, and seemingly successful. The New Belgium Brewing Company describes it as combining “the best parts of a bike race, adventure race, obstacle course, and a back yard party.” But for today, I’d like to discuss their model for incorporating cause into a clearly corporate event and promotion of a product line. This is a bike ride about promoting beer. They do not hide that fact; the obstacle courses involve retrieving beer cans from bottoms of pools, or building a puzzle to reveal one of the corporate sponsors’ logos. But it’s also a benefit on a number of levels, and I am continually impressed with the way they effectively weave cause into a corporate event. The event is structured such that they are walking the walk (biking the bike?), not just talking the talk.

As their website clearly explains, the event aims to not only promote biking in general, but also learning to use bikes as transportation in a community. By holding a race where you plot your own course through St. Louis city and county, the ride itself promotes the use of a bicycle for more than just recreational riding on a closed course. Many of the riders don’t typically ride 25 miles in traffic on a Sunday morning from downtown to Brentwood. The rules and all event info mandate that participants wear helmets, follow all traffic laws (disqualified if you get a traffic ticket), and use bike lanes when available. There might be no better way to advocate for drivers and cyclists getting along than for more of them to be successfully sharing the road together.

In each city, New Belgium teams up with 2-3 local nonprofit groups and involves them on a number of levels. Not only are they listed as the beneficiaries (they actually receive profits from the event), but often their offices or headquarters are featured as stops along the race (where there are usually obstacle courses). The organizations also typically provide volunteers to man the stations and help staff the event. So by the end of the day, the hundreds of competitors have not only donated funds to the organizations, but have often also visited their spaces and probably talked to their staff. I think that’s a successful introduction to a local organization. In the past, St. Louis organizations have included Saint Louis BikeWorks and Trailnet (to my knowledge).

It’s smart of New Belgium to involve local organizations instead of picking a national one, as the buy-in is better from the organizations, participants are thrilled to be supporting a local organization that they may already be involved with (or can now become involved with), and the organizations get more than just a check at the end, they’ve actually gotten exposure to a community of people who often share their same values and support their mission. The way they’ve integrated various cause components into the event (I didn’t even mention that they buy carbon offsets for the event, recycle and compost almost all waste, do not provide bottled water and engage local businesses for food, vendors, etc.) is a great model for corporate cause events. They are showing, not just telling. I’ve been to plenty of events where a beneficiary is named or featured, but very few where I feel like I am already invested in and likely to re-engage with an organization that was one of that event’s true partners. Kudos New Belgium! Ride on, St. Louis.

(This post originally appeared on the blog of 501Connect.)

As a marketer, it’s hard not to be enthralled by the competitive challenges faced by each week’s two agencies. They find themselves in situations I’ve often been in myself–trying to find purpose, developing a creative narrative, trying to resonate with the appropriate target audience, and creating a program that ultimately delivers a return on the investment.

But as someone steeped in corporate reputation management, I find the afterglow of each competition also shines a light on the cultures of each agency involved. And that, for better or worse, can have a lasting impact on the reputation of each agency featured on “The Pitch.”

Take the most recent episode, in which Toronto-based The Hive faced off against Houston’s FKM in an effort to win the business of home services conglomerate Clockwork.

Each agency was tasked with creating a “tri-branded integrated promotional campaign” integrating Clockwork’s three branded service companies — One Hour Air Conditioning & Heating, Mister Sparky, and Benjamin Franklin Plumbing.

And while I personally found each agency’s final pitches to be less than stimulating, perhaps that was because I was most compelled, or possibly distracted, by the personal and cultural contrasts between The Hive and FKM.

In short, I kept asking myself, “Would I want to work for this agency?”

The Hive is led by Andy Krupski, whose overflowing confidence bordered on ridiculous arrogance (hypocritical moment number one), and while at first all I could think was how unlikeable he was, Krupski’s personality slowly grew on me. The more I watched, the more I learned about the culture of the agency, the creative-minded space in which they worked, The Hive’s willingness to cut against the grain, be honest with prospective clients, and how that ultimately translated into what the agency stood for and delivered.

FKM, in turn, was a corporate shop, led by the structured and far more buttoned-up Scott Brown, he told us early how he had been burdened with the task of essentially saving the agency from irrelevance a year prior.

FKM’s workspace looked like a series of corporate offices, the decorum of the staff could have been plucked from an electric utility company (hypocritical moment number two). And from the point early on when Brown told his employees that they had to turn in their cell phones so they could all concentrate on the big pitch – it seemed FKM was less a field of ideas where creativity grows, and more a process-driven idea mill where functional thoughts are manufactured.

That being said, neither of the approaches of The Hive or FKM was ostensibly wrong. Different ideas and approaches appeal to different people. They were simply from each end of the spectrum, and in the end, FKM won Clockwork’s business with a reasonable idea that paralleled the initial “ask” of the company’s chief executive, Scott Boose, and chief marketing officer.

But despite that – based on my personal beliefs on how more creative environments can drive more productive marketing solutions – for me, the afterglow of “The Pitch” made it very easy to answer the question of where I’d rather work: The Hive.

In a long document Al Qaeda’s American spokesman Adam Gadahn sent to Bin Laden, various media are analyzed and a plan is put forth for getting publicity for the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. If Gadahn wasn’t on the military’s wanted list, he could use this document in an application for a PR job representing repressive regimes around the world.

The strategy Gadahn put forth was to offer exclusive information to 30-50 journalists through a password-protected site. Gadahn hoped that ten would take Al-Qaeda up on the offer, enough to get some good coverage for their point of view.

He muses about offering an exclusive (He gushes: “The first press interview of Shaykh Usama or Shaykh Ayman since 10 years ago!”), but, in the end, he goes with the big release, suggesting that video be shot in HD, avoiding the lousy quality that plagued their earlier releases. “I suggest that we should distribute it to more than one channel, so that there will be healthy competition between the channels in broadcasting the material, so that no channel takes the lead,” he concludes.

As for the media they would reach out to, Gadahn had a mix of intelligent insights and wacky ideas:

- CBS - a “maybe” for its long-forum journalism programs like “60 Minutes.”
- MSNBC – a “no” after it fired Keith Olbermann.
- CNN – they get praise for quoting terrorist press releases directly and not just ripping and reading wire copy.
- ABC – highest praise for this network news after it ran excerpts from Gadahn’s speech on the fourth anniversary.
- As for Fox News – “let her die in her anger.”

In the end, the documents read like the musings of a mid-level PR person trying to justify his existence in an organization that doesn’t understand what he does. If the event he was talking about wasn’t so horrific, this would be the easiest material to parody you can come across online.

Ready to stretch beyond the boundaries of 
your education?

An Elastic Intern does a lot of things–fetching coffee is not one of them. From day one, our interns are expected to dive right in and work on multiple projects for multiple clients. However, that’s just the beginning.

We expect our interns to push the envelope and learn their own boundaries, which is why we recruit passionate, tired-of-the-same-old-BS, let’s-do-something-no-one-else-is-doing, kind of people.

We hire trailblazers with backgrounds in: account management, project management, public relations, social media/community management, SEO/SEM, web development, art direction, graphic design, copywriting, user experience, mobile, bacon culinaria and/or mustache culture.

Still with us? Then keep reading, and apply to be a 2012 Summer Elastic Intern.

NOT-SO-ELASTIC DATES TO REMEMBER:

Send us your stuff by:  Monday, March 5, 2012
We’ll get back to you by:  March 12, 2012
We’ll get to know you:  March 13 – March 30, 2012
We’ll let you know by:  April 6, 2012

The Elastic Internship:  June 4 – August 10, 2012*

*These dates are flexible, school schedules pending

WHAT TO SEND:

• Résumé
• Portfolio (if applicable)
• Completed Flexibility Test

All items must be received by March 5, 2012.

WHERE TO SEND:

If you’re emailing, send to:
Holler@goelastic.com

If you’re snail mailing, send to:
1101 Lucas Ave., Suite 202
St. Louis, MO 63101
Attn: Peter Panda

If you’re using a Pterodactyl, good luck.

FLEXIBILITY TEST: HOW ELASTIC ARE YOU?
Please include your responses to the following prompts.

1. Elastic Lab

Here at Elasticity, we all have the opportunity to do our own Elastic Lab project. We use Elastic Lab projects to test our theories, ideas and strategies. Some of our most notable Elastic Lab projects are the American Mustache Institute, Fund St. Louis, and Camp Ondessonk’s Virtual Camp. Although all of these projects focus on what we are passionate about, they also provide valuable insights for our clients and agency. In 500 words or less, give us a pitch for your Elastic Lab project.

2. Dream Job Description

We don’t hire based on a position or title; in fact, we make up our own titles. Instead, we hire based on skill sets and work ethic. If you were to apply all of your skills with unlimited opportunity, what would your dream job be? In 500 words or less, write your dream job description.

ABOUT ELASTICITY

Elasticity is a boutique digital agency located in downtown Saint Louis. We focus on PR, Social Media, Search Marketing, Creative Digital and Mobile. We’re new, even in dog years, but we’re growing fast. Since our inception, we have had the unique opportunity to work with much larger clients than most boutique agencies, yet be flexible enough to still take on the smaller, more fun projects that keep our team stimulated and engaged.

We primarily create engagement with brands online through a dizzying array of tactics we like to call “elastic marketing.” In a constantly evolving media landscape you can’t stand still. The world of digital marketing and public relations is rapidly moving forward, and so are we. Every agency says they’re “different,” but we are elastic.

So, if you have above-average Lite Brite skills, basic personal hygiene, and an affinity for bacon, apply for The Elastic Internship, and dare to go elastic.

Questions? Tweet at us, @goelastic, or give us a shout at holler@goelastic.com.

DOWNLOAD THE APPLICATION!

Take these to the bank:

Online:

• Augmented Reality establishes itself as the new QR code – overhyped, under-adopted, misused technology.
• Pintrest overtakes Myspace in traffic.
• Mobile in-stream ads make their appearance on Twitter and Facebook, everyone throws a fit, but continue to use Twitter and Facebook.
• Brand Pages become a cat-and-mouse game between Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ with each regularly stealing features from one another.
• Online deal fatigue sets in as companies research possibility of online coupons that result in higher prices for consumers.
• Consumer empowerment continues to reshape the supplier/consumer relationship.
• Netscape comes from behind to take down Internet Explorer.

Facebook & Social:

• Facebook launches a competitor to Google+ Hangout via a town hall-like setting with celebrity or major corporate participation
• Instead of Shotbooks, 21-year-olds use an app called PinLine, a mashup of their Pinterest boards and Facebook Timeline.
• Facebook’s UI mutates into an homage to Gowalla. This move infuriates the masses but goes over extremely well with a “niche” group of users, most of whom also kill their own food.

Mobile:

• Federal ban on mobile device use in cars accelerates the Internet of things via connections built into more everyday objects. The subsequent eco-space of connected devices explodes into previously unimagined opportunities for commerce, safety and convenience.
• Voice-directed apps grow in popularity and cause people to bark directions to bypassers. Meanwhile, Siri becomes the most popular name given to newborns, pets and body parts.
• Market share for the iPhone erodes as consumers thirst for something different in their devices. Android fails to capitalize, but with so many people using voice-directed apps, no one can tell what kind of phone they are using.

Miscellaneous:

• Bacon remains delicious.
• In recognition of the growing protest movement, Congress changes the national symbol from an American Eagle to the Angry Bird.
• A record number of celebrities launch virtual or gaming entertainment experiences including former Congressman Anthony Weiner’s guess-that-body-part game.

Media:

• Local becomes the trend of the year with the big boys (Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and eBay) using technology to threaten the last bastion of advertising revenue that newspapers, radio and TV have clung to.
• Political advertising takes over airwaves in the run-up to the November election. The result is a near shutdown of mainstream media as consumers seek to find ways to avoid being inundated with dopey political ads.
• With TV shows being watched more online or with Internet-enabled TVs, programming becomes more like YouTube videos with clickable pop-ups, interactive gaming capability, merchandise call-outs, behind-the-scenes footage, etc.
• The Chicago Sun Times becomes a mobile game.

Unless you want to buy Microsoft Office online.

We recently bought Microsoft Office for a new laptop. We easily downloaded the software in the time it takes for three gigs of info to flow into the machine. However, to set it up and begin using it, we needed the product key.

We figured it would be another seamless process, like every other part of setting up software on a new computer.  We were wrong.

How did Microsoft supply us with the information that allowed us to open up that massive file and start using Word, PowerPoint, and Excel? They mailed it to us.

Yes, that’s right, you put your credit card in, including that three-digit number you can never remember, hit send and, bang! We’ll mail it to you.

A jumble of twenty-five numbers and letters through the mail. No, not email. The other one. The one with those coupons and letters that a guy brings around most days. Yeah, THAT mail.

I’ll admit the plastic box that arrives is impressive, considering it’s just letters and numbers inside. The packaging looks like it would hold a small disc or a thumb drive. When you open it, you find a piece of laminated cardboard onto which they have affixed the label with the 25-character key.

Okay, I know this is 2011 and piracy is a big problem, but is this the best Microsoft can do to defeat the pirates? Do software pirates not know how to type the characters from the cardboard into their skull and crossbones brand laptops? Is this really working?

The facts she reported are nothing short of astonishing, and reflect the incredible growth of ecommerce around the world and how mobile devices have so quickly become the devices of choice to conduct that business. The presentation is a reminder of our position in this world: as Americans, we are playing a central role in creating a lot of the technology and products in this space, but the rest of the world is rapidly adopting them to their lives.

Take a look at this top-level set of amazing facts from her presentation:

• In the last three years, China added more Internet users than exist in all of the U.S.

• The amount of time U.S. users spend on social media is considerably less than much of the rest of the world. We spend an average of 6.8 hours per month while Russians spend almost 10 hours and Israelis spend 11.1 hours.

• From a near-standing start, mobile devices are generating significant traffic for many social sites: Pandora gets 60% of its traffic from mobile, Twitter 55% of its traffic, and Google’s mobile queries are four times what they were in 2007.

• While the iPod and iPhone sold well upon introduction, the iPad is selling at an almost unprecedented level for a new technology product sold by only one company. Meanwhile, Android phones are outselling iPhones almost four to one.

• While consumers spend only 8% of their time on print publications, advertisers are spending 27% of their budgets on print advertising. Meanwhile, consumers are spending 25% of their time on Internet and 8% on mobile devices.

• 200 million farmers in India receive government payments via mobile devices.

• 250 of the Fortune 1000 companies have launched mobile ad campaigns.

• Target now generates more than $1.5 billion from mobile sales.

Stay tuned, marketers. This is only the beginning of a mobile, global market with lots of opportunities for connections with consumers in ways we can only guess at.

As you’ve probably noticed, Facebook is in the midst of some major changes. As always, we are diligently reading, monitoring, experimenting and analyzing to be on top of the channel updates and ahead of the curve when it comes to impact for our clients. We’ve put together a short point of view so you can get a glimpse into what’s coming and what it means. We’ll be in touch as we further develop our ideas and strategies, and as these changes come into play.

BACKGROUND

Each year, Facebook’s F8 Developer Conference brings major changes to its platform. This year, that trend continued and Facebook introduced a series of changes to users’ profiles, its Open Graph protocol, and the News Feed. These changes present marketers with an opportunity to connect with their customers’ lives in an engaging, and more meaningful way.

PERSPECTIVE

The Internet is inundated with complaints every time Facebook changes are released. Users threaten to deactivate their accounts, and create pages encouraging friends to boycott and turn to competitors like Diaspora. The fact remains that Facebook is still growing, and with more than 800 million users it’s a marketing tool unlike any other and implications of these changes cannot be ignored.

In a nutshell, Facebook is making inroads into artificial intelligence and is now thinking for users as its EdgeRank algorithm becomes more and more sophisticated. Elasticity believes that engagement will continue to reign supreme, and this latest round of changes offers additional opportunities for brands and marketers alike to capitalize and further integrate themselves into their customers’ lives.

ANALYSIS

• Open Graph Protocol: For the past year, users could only “Like” content across the web. Facebook’s Open Graph is taking the next step and now users will be able to read, buy, watch, etc. – - any verb can be used the content publisher desires.

• Timeline Profile: User profiles will soon be redesigned into a timeline creating a digital scrapbook of a user’s entire life. Facebook applications can request permission from users to add actions taken within their app or website to their personal timeline.

• News Feed Updates and Ticker: Users view their News Feed by “Top Stories” and “Most Recent” now all in one stream. Top Stories are the result of what Facebook deems most important to the specific users based on their past interactions with friends and pages. In addition a Twitter-like “Ticker” now appears in the upper-right hand corner of the News Feed. All updates appear in the Ticker, and those updates Facebook grants greater significance will break out of the Ticker and appear in the News Feed.

OPPORTUNITIES

The ramifications of these Facebook changes won’t be fully realized until they are all rolled out in the coming months. Ultimately, these changes represent a great opportunity for content publishers and marketers to become a more important part of their customers’ lives.

• Timeline
  • Gaining approval to publish content to a user’s News Feed doesn’t simply create a post that will die out quickly, but instead, it becomes a permanent part of that user’s life on Facebook.
  • Brand pages will also have the opportunity to publish more content and more pictures. The large picture is great real estate for brands to change and update.



• Open Graph
  • Will allow the content publisher to have full control over how interactions within their application or website are published back to Facebook.
  • Users can watch a movie On Demand with their friends, order a new pair of shoes, listen to their favorite song, etc. The possibilities are endless.

• Ticker
  • Marketers will have to ensure their content is as social and engaging as possible to break through the clutter of the Ticker. If people are not engaging with Open Graph stories or page updates, then the publisher’s content will suffer because of the EdgeRank algorithm.
  • This week a study by EdgeRank Checker revealed that brand posts received 33 percent less impressions since the Facebook changes went live, but Likes on the posts increased 18 percent, and comments increased 17 percent.

NEXT STEPS

These changes are shifting away from gimmicks and marketing and toward a real sense of community, a more genuine experience. Walk the walk by following these recommendations:

• Create an experience - Don’t just give a coupon for diet drinks, host a live chat with a nutritionist, create an app to track caloric intake. Innovate so that your content lives prominently on peoples’ Timelines.

• More than ever before, make each post count - This is no longer a platform to push out marketing messages. They will get lost in the Ticker and be buried. Every single post must be something that will be liked and commented on.

• Strategically manage - When you can, make your voice heard by having brand advocates or staff mark posts as “top stories” and kick off the liking or commenting. Figure out what times of day your posts are best received and when they get buried.

• Think outside the “like” – Think about how you want people to interact with your brand. Now with Open Graph, you should choose your verbs carefully (maybe even brand them) and encourage types of interactions that will enhance your message.

For additional help building your brand’s Facebook presence, contact Elasticity at ElasticStrategy@GOELASTIC.com.

And it’s not because I’m an Apple fan. Sure, I have a lot of iPods, iPhones, an iPad, some old desktops and quite a few laptops laying around.  Hell, if I dig deep enough in the office I’m sure I’ll find a Newton in there somewhere. No…this isn’t about products. I did my senior thesis in business school on Apple. It was around the time Steve was first booted out and John Sculley had just come over from Pepsi. I remember railing on the decision to fire Steve as a shortsighted move. I remember defending my points to the college board and dean, and explaining why “bad behavior” was visionary, and how operators and entrepreneurs are two different creatures.

And that is why I’m truly sad tonight; why I feel the world has gotten a little smaller. There are only a handful of people in this world that are unafraid of the status quo. There are but a scant few people that have the strength to stand up to a culture that increasingly continues to see only short-term. That fights and pushes those that continually fear change and all the good that comes of moving the human race forward. I applaud and look up to people like that. I emulate them and have tasted a bit of the backlash that comes from it. It’s a hard road, but it’s the right road. Without it, we cease to evolve. It takes big people like Steve Jobs to keep things moving. It takes people of that conviction to stand up to the short-sighted boards that defend the status quo with all the strength their fear can muster.

Steve was famous for saying “Stay hungry, stay foolish.” But I think that the Wayne Gretzky quote is more apropos: “I skate to where the puck will be.  Not to where it was.”  Steve Jobs was one of the few brave enough to skate away from the pack and move to where the “puck” was going to be.

And even though these words were penned by the Los Angeles office of TBWA/Chiat/Day, I feel there is no better send off for Steve Jobs:

“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

Thank you for being crazy. Thank you for changing the world. Thank you for changing my world. There is one less round peg in the world today, and no matter what anybody says, I feel that that hole will never be filled.

Rest in peace, Steve Jobs. I already miss you.

What they have failed to realize is that under their feet the entire system had changed – money altered the equation in a fundamental way, allowing players with demonstrated skills to go wherever they wanted, and teams created an open market for their services. That’s a market the As couldn’t compete in – Oakland had a small market team with limited resources. The As were constantly outbid by their big market competitors and the best players on the team inevitably left.

In the scene, Beane is trying to get these older men to see things in a new way. They have to find the players other teams undervalue – read that as cheaper players – and to do that, they have to measure everything and turn the formulas inside out.

Instead of assessing a player based on batting average, home runs and earned run average, they go back to what might seem obvious, but is central to what it takes to win: getting on base and scoring runs, and keeping opponents off base and not scoring runs.

In this new way of looking at baseball, they quickly found that a walk can be as valuable as a long single, and a fly out on one pitch is better for a pitcher than a multi-pitch strike out.

So, what does this mean for us as we look at social media, marketing and public relations? I think we are looking at a very similar situation in the marketing world. Between an emerging generation of users embracing  new tools on a daily basis, and constantly changing technology that is becoming commonplace in our society, the entire system of communicating to consumers has changed under our feet. Now we need to find a new perspective on how we work and profit.

Here are some lessons that we can learn from Moneyball’s intriguing parable:

• Measure everything and take apart all of the formulas your company has been living by.  CPM may be as meaningless to advertising to 18-24-year-olds as RBIs are to the success of a team in a given late-inning situation.

• Find a way to do more with the dollars you have. For instance, if you haven’t reassessed your banner ad strategy lately or the traditional press releases that don’t get picked up, you might be spending money with little to show for it.

• Use research to find out the elements of your business your competitors – and you – have been undervaluing.  Billy Beane picked up pitcher Chris Bradford for next to nothing because teams didn’t like how he looked when he pitched. Not how he pitched or how successful he was, they didn’t like how he threw the ball. It could be that an email marketing campaign might not be as sexy as an iPhone app, but it may be a better use of your marketing money.

• Don’t swing at every pitch.  Moneyball compared each at bat to a hand of Black Jack with every pitch forcing you to reassess your strategy. In marketing, that can mean not jumping on every trend or new technology, but being patient and assessing the opportunities before making a move when it makes sense for you.

• Don’t accept anything at face value. The traditional assumptions may be completely wrong in the new paradigm, and one of the worst things you can do is to continue to operate as you always have for no reason other than tradition.

• Don’t accept failure with the hope that you will get lucky. The As scouts started with the assumption that they couldn’t replace Johnny Damon, Jason Isringhausen and Jason Giambi and still win. As the movie sought to prove, the As had other options besides either overspending or losing more games. By working smart, and using measurement and analysis, they could beat teams with much larger payrolls. So, can you.