At Circumerro Media, we believe giving back to our community is more than a good deed; it’s our responsibility. So, we help out local non-profits and organizations from time to time when our creative skills can be put to service. We recently aided the Teton Literacy Program in creating a logo for an new fundraiser they are organizing. The Teton Literacy Program “provides literacy education and resources to open doors for individuals and families to achieve their personal, professional and academic goals.”
The new version of 22Local, or 2.0 as it’s referred to around the office, is live. We took on this project, well, because we saw a need for it. News and information travels quickly in a small town, but sometimes not fast enough, and you can never find everything you need in one spot. How many blog subscriptions are on your iGoogle or feed reader? 22Local is our way of answering our town’s call for a media mix that does things differently. It was created for locals, by locals. Check out some of the features:
• News posts cover breaking stories, town politics, local events, familiar faces and more.
• Page 22 provides opinions and commentary from featured local columnists.
• Our Community Calendar highlights events and entertainment around the valley.
• Weather reports compile the region’s weather sources and ski reports.
• Our Forum allows you to share and shape the news and conversations that influence Teton County.
• Classifieds let you buy, sell and trade with each other—for FREE.
I was attending a function at the Goolge Plex last night and was amazed at just how far Google looks to push their brand experience. I would have to say that it was a first to see outhouses all alight with Google’s colors.
If the outhouses were following the brand palette, so was everything else: the bar and colors of cups they serve; the building decor; the snowcone colors; the lighting upon the wall. Google has shown great execution with their brand and obviously that attention to detail pours over into all facets of their business.
As for July 2007, Google is commanding a 64.4% market share of search (reported by Hitwise.) Not a bad run since September 1998 to have built up almost a 160B market cap.
While on Google, George Anders also has an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal on Google’s ability to execute going forward. Just a snippit for your delight.
“History suggests that it is perilous to seek long-lasting inspiration from young companies when they are riding high. In the early 1980s, experts lauded People Express for developing an upbeat, winning approach to employee relations. Unfortunately, that couldn’t protect the airline from financial troubles and an eventual sale of the company on distressed terms.”
—Latham
Is our life being homogenized with global brands that preclude any localized discovery? On a recent business trip to San Francisco, I felt like my travel experience was as if I had just taken a trip to the local mall (which fortunately JH doesn’t have).
Effective brands offer a level of trust and security as we travel. Obviously all those passing travelers offer lots of impressionable eyeballs, so why not expose your brand to them? Upon exiting the BART train I was deluged with Microsoft’s promotion of Vista, almost buying every square inch of the Powell Street terminal. For a second I thought I had arrived in Vegas at the Consumer Electronics show, not in the financial district of one of America’s most cultural cities.
As I walked the block-and-a-half to the Marriott, identified by it’s signature architectural facade, the only thing that stood out in the fog was the glowing white Apple logo from their store on Stockton Street. I had traveled all this way and not experienced one thing related to San Francisco (BART excluded—it rocks) that was local in nature.
So, do we want our lives consumed by large-branded experiences where we are told how these products will help us feel, travel and live? Well, to each their own, but to live an engaged life means you forgo the obvious and look for the experiential opportunities in your environment. On my next trip I think I will challenge myself to not patronize any large brand that is not regional in nature to that locale and actually take in some local culture.
The best part of returning home and the only thing that stood out in leaving the airport was a local sign—a reminder of why living in JH allows us to not become a homogenized American.
—Latham
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