Admit it. It’s still fun to hide and hunt dyed eggs on Easter. That was the thought when we dreamed up this little promotion for Chinet’s website. With Easter around the corner, the idea was to highlight COLORS by Chinet®, a collection of brightly colored paper plates, perfect for the holiday. So, we hid a few plates around MyChinet.com for viewers to find. When they found all five, we gave ‘em a coupon.

In return, Chinet got more than 26,000 pageviews of the contest landing page, and more than 1,400 new Club Chinet referrals. As for the hidden plates, well, the pages where they were hidden topped the 15 most viewed pages for the month, proving that everyone loves an good ol’ fashioned Easter egg hunt.

Check it out here. 1 2 3

I love what I do. And that was reinforced last week while meeting with a great group of small agency owners from around the country. As part of the 4As (American Association of Advertising Agencies), we participate in a group called Forum 13 that meets twice a year to discuss the good, the bad, and perhaps the ugly of what we do. But thanks to the open and honest exchange with these guys, I always come away feeling great about our work, our clients, our people, and pretty much everything about MBB. These meetings point out what we’re doing right and where we still need to improve. I always leave our time together motivated, inspired and reaffirmed that we are doing a lot of things right.

And while it can be a very challenging business at times, I wouldn’t trade what I do for the world. I’m grateful for this group and the insight they provide and their ability to remind me that I love what I do. Thanks Forum 13. Guanxi, my friends (OK…look it up.).

At MBB, we thrive on the idea of creating possible for our clients. The notion of being presented with a business challenge and having the opportunity to come up with impactful solutions is what gets us excited. However, when I think about “creating possible,” I’m often more inspired by amazing human, real-life stories that demonstrate the power of what’s possible. These stories only motivate me more and help me apply “possible” in my one little way. I recently ran across the story of Scotty Smiley and his book, Hope Unseen: The Story of the U.S. Army’s First Blind Active-Duty Officer. It’s a truly amazing story of faith, hope, family, friendship, love and how one person chose to respond to a truly life-changing event. Scotty, with a lot of help from family, friends and others, chose to create possible with his life. Check out the story, watch the video, and if so inclined, read the book. And think about what you can do to achieve “possible” with your work and your life.

This doesn’t come as a surprise at all, but it’s certainly another great example of how consumers and their 24/7 access to online product information, reviews and competitive pricing are impacting traditional retailers. And I’m guilty. Here’s my little story. You’ve probably had the same experience.

I was looking for a basic sound bar speaker system to add to an existing TV. That’s the kind of product you want to experience (hear!) in person. So I made a few stops one afternoon and listened to a really cool LG sound bar at Best Buy. I was ready to buy on the spot. But, with trusty iPhone in hand, I thought I would pull up some quick reviews, check Consumer Reports and so on. What I didn’t really expect to find was a price on Amazon, for the exact same product, for $150 less…on an item already well below $500. And, of course I could get free shipping from Amazon. So, as much as I would like to have supported the store and walked right out of there and hooked up a cool new speaker, an easy $150 savings made that impossible.

It will be interesting to see what transpires with Best Buy and other big box retailers where the online experience can easily compete, if not surpass, the in-store experience.

How do you launch the premiere of a movie about Space Camp? How about launching one lucky family to the real deal at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama?

That’s what MBB and Hallmark Hall of Fame did when we got together to promote the recent release of “A Smile as Big as the Moon.”

The online contest centered around a microsite where visitors could enter to win an actual Space Camp weekend. They could also check out the movie trailer and read bios of the actors.

After about four weeks, the promotion generated more than 215,000 unique visits and almost 73,000 entries. It also helped Hallmark Hall of Fame grow their Facebook fan base by nearly 45 percent.

Even the Space Camp folks noticed an uptick. In one two-day period, they booked 89 camp reservations, compared to 20 bookings for the same period last year.

Check out the microsite here. 1 2 3 4

You might be wondering what an ad agency could possibly know about car reliability. Actually, a lot, thanks to our friends at Consumer Reports.

About this time every year, CR publishes a reliability study, in which they survey drivers to find out which car brands, makes and models they consider the most – or least – reliable. MBB got to wondering if we could leverage that content via social media and create greater interaction and more sharing.

What we came up with was a Facebook-based Moto Quiz, where people could test their auto IQ by picking which cars they thought ranked most reliable in CR’s study.

The Moto Quiz lives on CR’s Facebook page, so sharing the quiz with friends is easy. A leaderboard keeps track of top scores and offers viewers a chance to compete with friends.

It’s actually just one of the many ways we’ve been helping CR refresh their brand image and chip away the old perception that Consumer Report is “my dad’s magazine.” By making CR “more fun” to interact with, we’re exposing their core value to a younger audience and adding new relevancy to CR’s content.

By the way, the quiz is still up and running, so if you think you’ve got the car smarts to tell a peach from a lemon, head on over to CR’s Facebook page.

Check it out here. 1 2

Proctor & Gamble has launched a new packaging, advertising and social media around one of America’s oldest and most classic brands, Ivory Soap. This is another great example of brand renovation – taking what already exists and is fundamentally true about a brand, and renewing it to be more appealing in today’s world. With existing equity in the brand, renovation is often more cost efficient and effective in building sales. As soaps have become more specialized and targeted to specific audiences and genders, Ivory has posed the following question in its advertising, “At what point does soap stop being soap?” Good point! But of course the big question here is…does Ivory Soap still float?

With new systemwide brand standards rolling out nationally, YMCAs all over the country are retooling their marketing materials. As a result, we’ve been helping YMCA of Greater Kansas City redesign a variety of elements to be in compliance with the new standards.

The largest of those projects was a complete redesign of their website. With 19 different locations in several Kansas City area communities – each offering different classes and services… it was kind of a monster. YMCA asked us to help reel it in and improve both the look and feel and the user experience.

We also helped redesign their email templates to bring them into compliance with the new brand standards and match the new website design.

If you visit their website, be sure to check out their classes, too. They’ve got some great ways to stay in shape this fall and winter.

Check it out here. 1 2 3

You all know the feeling. There’s a room (or in most cases more than one) in your house that needs some renovation. You think about it every time you walk into that room. Something just isn’t right. It could just need a different color of paint. Maybe the fix could be as simple as rearranging some of the furniture. Or, it could be to the point where it’s time to call in the pros and do a complete overhaul. Whatever the case, the room feels old and out-of-date, and if it’s a more public room like a kitchen or living area, you may even avoid having guests in your home.

OK, so you know there’s a need. Now it’s a matter of getting started. Often times, other priorities just get in the way. Things like “I don’t have the time,” and “I don’t have the money right now,” and “it’s just a huge hassle,” get in the way. But the sooner you can get started, the better it will all be, and you’ll find yourself saying, “why didn’t we update this earlier?” I know I’ve said those exact words after every home project I’ve ever done.

And here’s the fun part – whether you do it yourself, or call in the pros, even the most basic renovations will make a huge difference. You’ll be excited. It will feel right. And you’ll want to tell everyone you know about the work. You’ll want to show it off.

This feeling is true for your house. But it’s also true for most brands. You have a foundation. You have lots of good things to build upon. Talk to your customers. Do some research. Look around. Ask questions. And find out what you can do to renovate your brand.