Bounty Rules at Make-A-Messterpiece

How's this for marketing? Today we visited Make-A-Messterpiece -- a creative art studio for kids. Their slogan is "Say Yes to the Mess!"

They sell messy packages that include painting, drawing, playing with bubbles, making crafts, learning about science, cooking and more.

Some of the titles of their activity stations are: Kids' Creative Kitchen, Bubble'ology, DrumRoll, Lil' Sprouts and Experimentation Station.

Well, this fun, messy place has found a huge sponsor in Bounty paper towels. What a great idea! Every mess needs to be cleaned up, right? So, why not use the best paper towels on the planet?

You can see from the pictures that the Bounty logo is found all over the place -- especially at the hand-washing stations!

Their website works the Bounty sponsorship in well by telling moms part of the benefit of kids visiting this creative studio is that they will also learn how to clean up after themselves!

On a side note, they use Charmin toilet paper in the bathrooms -- each toilet paper roll has the Charmin logo painted above it on the wall! I didn't feel right taking a picture in a bathroom, so you'll just have to imagine that one!

Anyway, if you want to see more about Make-A-Messterpiece, visit www.makeamessterpiece.com!

Cool stuff!

The Next Generation of Marketing Professionals are on the Way

This week I had the pleasure of speaking to a couple of marketing classes at my alma mater -- Illinois State University.

My task was simply to share my career path with them in an effort to give them a glimpse of what can happen after graduation.

One of the things we touched on was creativity in your career -- because careers are not necessarily as streamlined as they were before. And, they are not always a straight line to retirement, as they once were.

I told the students about my career plan -- to start in the corporate world and gain experience, credibility and certifications. Then to launch a consulting business after having children that would allow me to be home with my children most of the time. (So far, so good!)

I showed them a few of the most fun projects I've worked on, such as the Million Dollar Coupon and the KUA annual reports. These were great examples of how the digital world is changing the fields of marketing and public relations.

I also shared with them how networking, volunteering and doing internships helped me get to where I am now. Living my dream.

It was such a fun experience, and I was really impressed by the students I spoke with. If anyone needs a few good marketing interns, let me know, and I'll get you in touch with the Marketing Department at ISU.

Using Creativity and PR to Sell my Home

Due to a job relocation, we need to sell our Fort Myers Florida home. After 3 months of letting an agent use traditional marketing methods, I took action on my own.

My husband and I came up with a marketing idea to create dueling top 10 lists of the best features about the home. We thought this would appeal to men and women who tend to look for different things when they buy a home.

I used the PR web advanced release package to distribute a release about the top 10 lists to areas snowbirds come to Florida from: Boston (for Red Sox spring training), Minneapolis (for Twins spring training), Detroit, Chicago and Columbus.

On the day the release went live, more than 30 people viewed our listing on www.realtor.com. That number may seem small to some, but from 0 hits one day to 30 the next was exciting. Those were 30 more people than would have seen the listing otherwise. In addition, the release infiltrated the news feeds on real estate websites worldwide.

I also distributed the release to my Fort Myers media contacts. As a result, an article ran Sunday, September 19, in The Fort Myers News-Press. It appeared on the front page of the real estate section and featured several pictures of the home. The publication of this article also infiltrated the web and populated the news feeds on real estate websites around the globe.

Another tactic I used for this campaign was a blog. I created a blog to tell the stories of the home to help potential buyers see what a lovely, family-oriented home 11471 Persimmon Court is. Check it out: http://11471persimmoncourt.blogspot.com. Each time I write a new blog entry, I post it on Facebook and Twitter.

One exciting aspect of this campaign was that the Florida Association of Realtors wrote an article declaring the dueling top 10 lists a new "marketing tactic" in their newsletter. This was particularly exciting since part of what we were trying to do was create some action, activity and momentum in the real estate world! Perhaps this one little idea will help generate many more!

Two books were instrumental in my inspiration to create this campaign. The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott and A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink. If you haven't already read them, get going!

Will keep you posted when the house sells!