U2’s newly released “I Believe in Father Christmas” music video has nothing on Park&Co’s water-saving 12 days of Christmas. Recorded outside the legendary “combustible cafe,” Park&Co staff proudly displayed their musical chops on behalf of Water - Use It Wisely, an international water conservation effort.
Check out what is sure to sweep the MTV Music Video Awards next year…
(This article originally appeared in Southwest Graphics, Winter 2008)
Park&Co (no spaces, no period, which really freaks out editors) has been in business nearly 14 years, and every time the market blows up around them, they just get more combustible.
“Being ‘combustible’ is our internal mantra for producing brilliant work that is the accelerant for client growth,” says Park Howell, president of Park&Co. “It’s like tossing gasoline on a fire.”
The agency’s definition of a combustible idea is one that has the potential to explode, make a lot of noise, give off a lot of energy, and attract a lot of attention.
The combustible approach to their business has produced results for Park&Co clients, including growing sales for Goodwill of Central Arizona by more than 300 percent in six years. Combustible thinking saved Forever Living Products, the agency’s first client, nearly $150,000 by shifting video distribution from DVD to an online strategy that integrates a Wordpress site, YouTube, and iTunes.
Other notable work includes a campaign for Bring Back Blue, which featured a 3-story dust mask hung on the superior court building, the LEED award-winning branding work for Global Water, and a recently launched online business that allows contractors to review good customers and avoid bad ones.
The epicenter and inspiration for Park&Co’s work is its newly renovated office, some of the coolest agency digs in town. Bright red garage doors roll open to connect the shaded courtyard with amenities like the Combustible Café, the creative garage complete with musical instruments and lessons for staffers, and conversation walls painted in bright primary colors.
But the real TNT at Park&Co is found in its people. It’s a company of client evangelists that converge all forms of media — from traditional advertising to the latest online media to word of mouth marketing to stunts and promotions — to accelerate the growth of their clients and the growth of their agency.
Howell points to their unique brand of combustible, convergent communications as the reason the agency continues to grow through yet another down market.
“If our ideas aren’t making our clients sweat a little, then we’re not doing our job,” he says.
Does anyone else remember the days when people only used products in movies and TV shows? Now they’re an integral part of the script, weaving their way into the character dialogue with product attributes and multiple mentions. This evolution of product placement is called product integration, and it’s become so prevalent that the FCC is is studying the effects and considering regulation of this in-show advertising. Some call it embedded advertising. Here’s a look at a scene from last season’s finale of Mad Men, a show that is a natural fit for this kind of thing:
You just watched a three-minute commercial for a Kodak slide projector. Granted, the slide projector is an archaic product with little use in today’s highly technological world, but wasn’t that touching? It’s even more so if you follow the show and feel like you know the characters and their history and relationships. This is precisely why the FCC is investigating the use of actual products in shows. Some believe the impact is far too great and creates a false sense of connection with the product, without you truly knowing you are watching an ad.
There is another angle to the argument, as well. Business is getting in the way of creativity. Being a writer means that you have an element of control over the material you create. With this new and improved advertising method, script writers everywhere are having to bend to the will of big business, who are paying top dollar to studios in order to get product or company names in the script. Control over the script content has been partially usurped from the hands of writers. All of this is an interesting paradox, because television and advertising are so intertwined, that one likely couldn’t survive at its current level without the other. Advertising supports television, but people certainly aren’t watching television simply for the advertising. Where do we draw the line?
Should you have to be told that a commercial is coming your way, or do you think that you can figure it out on your own? Where do we draw the line between programming and advertising?
Youth Noise, a social networking site for people under the age of 27 who like to connect based on deeper interests than Paris Hilton’s wardrobe and who want to get engaged within a cause, just hosted its inaugural DROP Water Summit at Parsons New School for Design in New York. The November 15 summit convened youth environmentalists, social entrepreneurs, innovative leaders, and revolutionary thinkers to discuss water issues and develop projects around global water challenges. Check out the DROP Summit event photos.
A wise old marketing sage once asked me, “What’s a newspaper in business for?”
“To deliver timely, accurate, and impartial news everyday to their subscribers,” I proudly responded as a young ad man trying to impress his mentor. “Wrong,” he said. “Newspapers are in the business to make money! If they’re not making money, they can’t deliver the news,” he snorted. Great point, and an even better lesson.
The next time you consider asking a for-profit company to sponsor your non-profit cause, first ask yourself the question, “What’s in it for them?” Sure, they want to be a good corporate citizen. That’s a given. What’s really the crux of the question is how can engagement with you and your organization bump up their bottom line while doing good for the community?
You must get inside their heads before you can get inside their pockets.
- Park Howell
Acclaimed marketing professors Philip Kotler and Nancy Lee authored an insightful college textbook called Corporate Social Responsibility: Doing the Most Good for Your Company and Your Cause. This book is filled with best practices on private/public partnerships with companies like The Home Depot, Ben & Jerry’s and Hewlett-Packard. Because it’s written for corporate managers in community relations and corporate giving and marketing, it offers non-profit leaders valuable insight into how companies choose causes and how to best align your mission with their mentality.
Here are ten recommendations from the final chapter, A Marketing Approach to Winning Corporate Funding and Support for Social Initiatives.
If you have thoughts on how to approach companies to support your cause, or a terrific case study you’d like to share, please do so in the comment box below.
It’s no secret that Obama embraced social media during his campaign, and it helped him win his presidency. By reaching out through a channel underutilized by other candidates, Obama projected himself through Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to talk with voters.
If you think this was just taking advantage of a fad to appeal to younger people, think again. Social media isn’t going anywhere, and this administration-elect seems to understand this. Not only has Obama put out a website to keep an open line of communication for his transition period, he’s announced that instead of having a weekly radio address, he will post his addresses as YouTube videos. This is a truly combustible idea, in my opinion. Here is Obama’s first video as President-elect:
What a refreshing step in communication to the public. By creating content that works with the social media model, he’s allowing users to do what they will with his content. They can openly embed, share and contribute uncensored criticism to the content he puts forward, just as social media does with other content. It’s an openness that I appreciate, and one that I’m not used to seeing from the office of the President.
Everyone knows a Twitter addict, and I have a friend who is addicted. Think I might need to send her to TTA (Twitter Twinkle Anonymous).
Twinkle is one of the newest social media apps, a geo-location powered Twitter, created by Tapulous in Palo Alto, California. “We love iPhone. And we love to build things, so we got together to build a family of fun, social apps for iPhone and share them with the world.”
With Twinkle, you can follow, connect and discover people in your area and directly around you with GPS location. You can find people sitting in the same area as you, such as the airport or in a coffee shop, and join their discussion. You can also update your Twitter account and upload photos from your iPhone and iPod Touch.
I might have to buy a iPhone just to play with this cool application.
We live for building great brands, creating combustible ideas, and taking long walks at sunset. You are a lit fuse of brand strategy skills, writing and presentation abilities, and odd behavior we can poke fun at. You love to manage, lead, motivate and train, but not necessarily in that order. You know how to work a budget and stay profitable—so well, in fact, that you always have coin to treat a co-worker to happy hour. You take on challenges gladly, suck up to others badly, and above all, refuse to use the word “solution” except in reference to an algebra problem.
These are the things we hold dear. These are the standards by which we judge. If you or someone you know possess these qualities (and any others we can take full advantage of), send us a note.
If casting your vote in the most significant election of our lifetime weren’t motivation enough, maybe the knowledge that your “I Voted” sticker will get you free treats will get you out of your seat.
When you leave your polling place, first swing by Krispy Kreme for a free star-shaped donut with red, white, and blue sprinkles. Don’t take that first bite, though, until you’ve hit your favorite Starbucks for free tall coffee to wash it down. After the work day, keep that sticker on while you pop into the closest Ben & Jerry’s for a free scoop of ice cream.
Ready to start noshing but not sure where to get that essential “I Voted” sticker? Find your polling place, eligibility information, and instructions at the League of Women Voters’ website.
Usually my Halloweens are spent in appreciation of the fact that a good costume now means as little clothing as possible. However, this year turned out to be a little different and I’d like to share a few lessons learned.
First, don’t trust your 4-year-old niece if she tells you she’ll give you all of her Bit O’ Honeys at the night’s end. Not true. Normally I’d have a hard time calling a 4-year-old a liar, but not this time. She lied and it’s going to take a lot to repair this relationship.
Second, trick or treating has gone from neighborhood fun to all out competition. You shouldn’t wake up the next day feeling like you’ve played a full 60 minutes at full back.
However, the best lesson I pulled out of Halloween this year is that you better stand out. Play it safe and you lose. Last week at Park&Co headquarters, amid the costumes, bratwurst burning and pumpkin carving contest, stood a stark contrast in commitment. On one hand you had me, opting for a sensible Halloween shirt.
On the other hand was Josh. A man so dedicated that he turned himself into the ultimate Halloween icon.
Now a lot of you out there are thinking what I was thinking. 
“What an idiot. I can’t believe he would embarrass himself like this.” Now, the idiot part is debatable. However, what cannot be debated is the fact that this idiot walked away with the pumpkin carving title even though my group championed our strategic thinking throughout the carving process.
Bottom line is this guy went above and beyond to garner attention. We were safe. He took a risk and he got the reward. No one is going to remember that we elegantly carved the Park&Co logo into a pumpkin, but everyone is going to remember the pumpkin head jamming cake into his fat pumpkin face.
That’s how brands succeed. The good ones bypass the cute Halloween shirt and carve their niche to leave an indelible mark. Or in some cases, they just carve a hole big enough to fit their head through.
Check out the rest of the Park&Co Halloween pictures at our Flickr account.
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