Year: 2010

Clairemont's New CMO

Dana PhelpsBlog, Marketing, Public Relations4 Comments on Clairemont's New CMO

 

Our friends over at Sky Bound Designs recently reminded us that we have been slow to bestow a title upon our loyal Billy when they sent him a letter to the office. It was addressed to Billy Hughens, Head of Team Morale. What about Head and Tail of Team Morale??

 

 

We are just as delayed in thanking all of you who told us what you thought Billy’s title should be. We appreciate your feedback, and a few of our favorites were Chief Wagging Officer (CWO), Unconditional Love Officer (ULO) and Pee R Account Executive. Without further ado, we are pleased to announce that our very favorite and Billy’s new title is…Chief Motivation Officer (CMO)!

 

Also, a little PR move of our own here, we want to pre-announce that we are saving the title of Pee R Account Executive for a new member of our team who is expected to join us later this week!

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Myrtle Monday Brought to You by Lela

Dana PhelpsBlog, Inspirational, Travel4 Comments on Myrtle Monday Brought to You by Lela
Blowing the Shofar by the Wailing Wall, Jerusalem

Lela got around. And I mean that in the nicest way possible. This is one of many postcards in Myrtle’s prized collection that was sent from her friend, Lela. It comes from Jerusalem circa 1972, and I’m not sure what I love most about it — the photo, the fact that Lela says she’s trying as many local foods as she can or the colorful stamp. Perhaps it’s the clue that Lela was an adventurous traveler and a thoughtful friend to send reports from all over the world back to Myrtle in her rural hometown.

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Investing in Professional Development

Dana PhelpsBlog, Professional Development1 Comment on Investing in Professional Development
We like when our smart friends at Start-Thinking include us in their blog posts. (Thank you!)

Last week, Josie and I attended the annual Public Relations & Marketing Seminar hosted by the North Carolina Chapter of Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). Like the other years I’ve attended, I found this to be a worthy professional development investment. For more on Clairemont’s professional development philosophy, check out this Start-Thinking post from Kristen Klucas on why and how agencies invest.

I had the pleasure of meeting the very talented Kristen when we both attended a Social IRL session with Sarah Evans… yes, investing in our professional development!

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Doing Our Best at Doing Our Part

Dana PhelpsBlog, Starting a business, Sustainability3 Comments on Doing Our Best at Doing Our Part
Josie rides her bike to work!
 

My son has a little sing-songy expression that he sometimes uses when he’s working through a task: “Doin’ my best, just doin’ my best.” I think it is a good motto for most anything, and especially for individuals and companies trying to live a greener life.

 

When I launched Clairemont, I knew that I wanted our agency to be sustainably aware, and that I wanted to work with sustainable clients. Being green is largely about taking baby steps. I selected office space downtown Raleigh so that hopefully some employees could travel to and from the office without getting in a car (which has become a reality!) and so that we are in walking distance of lunch spots (our faves buy from local farmers), the bank, the post office, etc. to minimize during-the-day driving.

 

Upon opening the office, we’ve found other small ways to do our part including the implementation of a reusable cup policy, participation in our building’s recycling program and printing on carefully selected recycled paper only when printing is a must!

 

When Josie joined Clairemont, I gave her an extra title of Clairemont’s Green Ambassador. The fact that the way she lives her personal life demonstrates that she loves her Mother Earth warmed my heart during her interviews. From a professional perspective, I knew her experience of living in Asheville serving in the AmeriCorps Project Conserve with a focus on conservation issues in North Carolina’s mountainous region would be a great asset to Clairemont clients.

 

In the coming weeks, our Queen of Green will be sharing sustainable tips here on our blog. As we also continually seek ideas on how to protect the environment, please send us your thoughts so that we can keep on doing our best… just doing our best.

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Engaging the Senses

Dana PhelpsBlog, Marketing, Public Relations, , ,
I didn\’t eat one of these candy apples, but I sure enjoyed them as eye candy! Aren\’t they beautiful?

A recent trip to the North Carolina State Fair was a great reminder of how effective engaging the senses can be as a marketing tactic.

Several hours, two buckets of taco salad, a perfectly normal funnel cake, a something else that was called a funnel cake but clearly was not, a couple of lemon shake-ups, a roasted corn on a stick, a half pound of salt water taffy (vanilla — it’s the only choice for taffy), a few cheap game prizes and six goldfish later, our senses had certainly been stimulated!

Thinking about this caused me to flashback to my days as a guest relations intern at Walt Disney World. I remember being surprised to learn that there was a system to blow the smell of the candy shop out into Main Street. Mmmmmmm. And it worked! It was difficult to walk by without going in to buy some of whatever they were making that smelled so darn good.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be looking at other companies who creatively engage the senses to capture consumer attention. If you have interesting sensory marketing examples, please let us know!

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