As “Coexisters,” our team strives to stay aware of global challenges in addition to quenching our daily thirst for all things digital. We often pride ourselves as “change agents” partnered up with emerging brands – but we truly found out what change is all about with our recent participation with fellow Portland, Oregon neighbors – Green Empowerment.

As the Coexist Portland office was taking shape earlier this year, it was amazing to see the outpouring of friends and associates looking to introduce our new Portland studio to other local businesses that were beginning to make waves. It was through one of these early introductions that we got to know the folks at Green Empowerment (GE). GE is a non-profit organization focused on bringing renewable energy and water systems to developing countries. GE empowers community leadership in these ailing countries and they are leading the charge to help the 1.6 billion people that live without electricity and 1 billion without clean water.

The more Coexist began to appreciate the Green Empowerment mission – the more eager we became to get involved and help share this story online.  Coexist worked with GE to completely re-design their existing website and in essence “turn up the volume” on the GE story of providing life-changing solutions to those in dire need.

In the digital age the common question is always “what’s next?” Green Empowerment and Coexist hope the answer is “using technology to make life for everyone much better”.

www.greenempowerment.org

Portland Advertising Federation Event

Thanks to the Portland Advertising Federation for hosting a great presentation by Dean McBeth, the Sr. Digital Strategist of P&G Brands for W+K on how they pulled off an incredibly successful, integrated campaign.

Five tips for creating your own break-out campaign (these are paraphrased and based on my cryptic notes):

1. It’s not a social media success story. It’s an integrated success story.
2. Trust (between the agency and client) enables you to be nimble, flexible and timely – key elements for real-time relationship building.
3. Collaboration across disciplines = greater, deeper impact.
4. Get the idea right first. Worry about the channel second.
5. Know the digital landscape. (not just where to be but how to best use each digital channel and to be sensitive to making sure key influencers opt-in to the campaign)

Something I found particularly interesting, beyond the strategic direction of building this campaign around a “big brother that doesn’t take himself too seriously” persona, was how they pulled off the real-time response aspect.

They actually built an application in a couple weeks that aggregates comments across social sites. Approved comments went into a production queue where the response was scripted and passed into video production. They posted 186 video responses to YouTube in two and a half days. They were posting a video about every 15 minutes.

Some results:
- 12 million views on YouTube
- 1.5 billion impressions
- Twitter follows up 2900%
- Google search up 2000%
- Sales up 107%

Really impressive stuff. Well done W+K!

In proper Coexist style – the sendoff for our favorite intern turned designer (Ben) was carried out with a grin and a tinge of indigestion. Celebrating Ben’s last day – it was decided early on that everyone would ride their bikes to work on Friday, and for lunch, we would take to the streets and pedal down to Junior’s Taco Truck.

The Coexist peloton that ensued consisted of a group of semi-confident yet ultimately happy riders sitting atop a mashup of dumpster-rescued cruisers and custom fixed gear rides. No cars would dare mess with this motley crew as we made our way down High Street en route to our cilantro-laced Mecca. The food was as authentic as it gets, everyone had a great time and nobody got hurt (irritable bowel syndrome doesn’t count) which is always a great way to end the week.

Here at Coexist we love a good milestone and we wanted to send out a sincere thank you to our friends/clients that have allowed us to complete project #500 this week.

It’s been an amazing ride from zero to 500 and with the recent addition of our Portland Studio – we couldn’t be more excited about the future. Without our rewarding relationships with (you) the retailers, farmers, doctors, lawyers, chefs, philanthropists, architects, entrepreneurs and game-changers, we wouldn’t have anything to celebrate.

Thanks again for all those that made up our first 500 – and here’s to the next 500. I feel like I should go dump a cooler of Gatorade on someone in the studio.

With summer just around the corner (and productivity invariably slipping), it was the perfect time to break away—1300 miles away—to sunny Denver, CO for a nice jolt of inspiration. The city hosted the 2010 HOW Design Conference, which I was thrilled to attend on behalf of the CX design crew last week.

The conference boasted a panoply of sessions on design, business, and inspiration, delivered by a panel of industry luminaries, including my personal favorites: Gail Anderson (of SpotCo), Debbie Millman (AIGA president), Mike Perry (midwestisbest.com), and Armin Vit (of Brand New).

It was hard to narrow it down, but here’s just a handful of insights I picked up along the way:

1. Relish the opportunity to connect with people. It’s refreshing to be surrounded by people with whom you can rally around shared obsessions like typography or white space—without the blank stares / clueless nods that normally accompany such geek-out sessions.

2. No ideas are as dangerous as the only one you have.

3. Let your clients be “in” on the concept. Show how the idea evolved from something they said. That way, they are less likely to kill it. Also, educate your client. Remind them that they are not the final audience, and that your work will be based on what works best for the final audience.

4. Gail Anderson might be my soulmate. A former art director for Rolling Stone magazine, she collects salt & pepper shakers, bottle caps, and other paraphernalia commonly misinterpreted as junk, and uses them in photos or as inspiration for spreads. “This plastic fruit? Mine now.” Finally. Someone who shares my affinity for aggressively reclaiming quirky, sentimental, useless objects.

5. To establish a better online presence, find your conversation and join in.

6. Strong digital designs come from understanding when to use reduction vs. organization. Great hierarchy is not always achieved by eliminating complexity, but by managing it.

7. Know why brands exist—today. Brands once functioned solely as marks of consistency (think: Coca-Cola), quality, or as expressions of lifestyle or status (Levi’s). Now, the modern brand has evolved to be a guarantor of connection. Facebook, iPod, and Google are able to connect us not only to the products and services we love, but also to the people with whom that passion is shared. In the digital stratosphere, this means brand experiences need to transcend aesthetic brilliance or ease of use. Engagement is no longer guaranteed by brand recognition or impression: people want to be part of a greater group—one marked by shared interests and the opportunity to connect.

8. Users’ actions are the most important measures of success. Traffic is virtually irrelevant. However, if “contact us” is your only call-to-action, you have no call-to-action. Never assume people want to get in touch with you because they saw your site.

9. There is always going to be someone you need to woo.

10. Make friends, not networks. Who are you more likely to contact? A number on a business card in a sea of business cards? Or your friend. Who happens to be in the same industry as you.

(Bonus) 11. Don’t be late. If your flight takes off at 6:20 am, it’s probably not the best idea to arrive at the airport at 5:53. Unless you’re an adrenaline junkie … which I am not.

If you find yourself in a creative rut and you have the opportunity to do so, get out there and talk to people—see what other people are working on around the country. It might spark some new ideas … dare I say “contacts” … and hopefully a Facebook friend or two ;)

At least once a week, someone asks us what the recruiting secret is at Coexist. Our default answer usually lies within the culture of “Free Range Design” that we have cultivated through the years, but that’s really just the beginning. A bigger part of the answer is that we are always on the lookout 24/7 for the next digital design rock star.

To find our future team members – we step away from our laptops and actively pursue the good ones. Earlier this month, I was honored to serve on the judging panel for The Ohio State University 2010 Senior Design Exhibition. This was the perfect opportunity to interact with the best and brightest graduates from the esteemed Visual Communication program at OSU.

The student presentations were very inspired and the enthusiasm could barely be contained as each designer dug deep to explain the key moments that led them to their project conclusions. Keeping pace with technology – a few Apple iPads were already being incorporated into student work to show proof of concept. We will forever feed off of the youthful exuberance of these future design stars – and yes…we did hire one of the top graduates. Seth starts at Coexist this July.

(1) Social Media Makes Cents
According to recent reports, $3.60 per connection (per year) is the consensus media value for one Facebook connection. A couple tips for getting the most from your social media investment: brands can post to Facebook twice a day before lowering user engagement and Wednesday is the optimum day for user engagement.

(2) Mobile Advertising Goes Mainstream
Industry leaders, Apple & Google have shelled out over 1 billion dollars to acquire emerging mobile advertising networks. This comes on the heels of recently released statistics proving that data consumption now surpasses voice calling by U.S. cell users. With widespread adoption just months away now – are you ready to extend your current brand channels?

(3) Big Brands Get Physical
Current media darlings, FourSquare and Gowalla have been the talk of every recent tech conference from SXSW to the local coffee shop. These mobile applications allow users to embrace location-based tagging, which as you can imagine, opens up all sorts of opportunities for hyper-local marketing. Buzz around these location-based apps may seem overwhelming, but now that Microsoft is looking to purchase FourSquare while brands from Warner Bros to Facebook are pushing the trend – it’s time to capitalize on this new dimension.

Victoria’s Secret Miraculous View Project

The Miraculous™ Push-up bra was designed to appease bombshells looking for an extra boost in both cup size and confidence. VS asked Coexist to join the Miraculous team with a focus on turning some flat (no pun intended) design files into a fully developed microsite experience.

DSW Bag of Reasons View Project

Brainchild of DSW and brought to life by Coexist, Bag of Reasons provides just the thing customers need when contemplating that next shoe purchase – a justifiable reason. Props to our friends at SpaceJunk for the video footage.

Bath & Body Works Body Lotion View Project

How do you convince America that their favorite Bath & Body Works lotion is better than ever? You simply ask America to try it and report back. And when they reported back, we shared those comments everywhere we could online from BathandBodyWorks.com, Bath & Body Works Facebook tab, to rich media partner sites like Pandora and Meebo.

With Q1 / 2010 in the rear view mirror – we finally have a chance to catch our breath and share our enthusiasm for 3 new talents that have joined Coexist.

As we continue to harness the power and possibility of emerging media – Noah Jablonski and Tony Schneider have joined our ever-evolving and growing development team. Noah brings a passion for design and a background in IT consulting with Deloitte & Touche to the mix, while Tony joins us as our summer intern from the Computer Science program at The Ohio State University. Most recently, Tony has been sharpening his skills on multiple development teams for local startup companies focused on both mobile and social applications.

A round of new hires at Coexist wouldn’t be complete without another addition to our client service team and we are proud to announce that Sarah Paul has joined us in this capacity. Sarah comes to Coexist by way of Chicago where she spent time at MWW PR Group. Beyond Sarah’s savvy writing and media skills, she brings a true appreciation for people and relationship building to the Coexist family.

As Coexist continues to help educational & vocational institutions embrace emerging media – a perfect partnership was born with The Delaware Area Career Center (DACC).

The DACC is a vocational school focused on providing formal preparation for technical or professional occupations to both high school students and adults. In essence, the DACC is the launch pad for future architects, firefighters, zoologists, nurses, chefs and so much more.

When DACC came to Coexist in need of a new website, we realized our task was to engineer a fresh online personality. The old site lacked the polish and professionalism that DACC embodies. Therein, we sought to create a more sophisticated site that was user-friendly, leaving prospective and current students both informed and inspired.

Coexist drew up the plans for a complete website re-design, evoking a new identity for DACC.  The re-design incorporated comprehensive course descriptions and allowed for online class registration, reducing the stress of becoming a new student.  The internal calendar paired with a rich news/events section invited students to be up-to-date on all DACC happenings.

What came to life was a vibrant new site, exuding strength and potential in the institution of DACC.  Just as DACC graduates enter the workforce more prepared, so will viewers of DACC’s new site, receiving a comprehensive understanding of what makes DACC so unique.

“The DACC staff & board were afraid that our old online experience was not up to par with other Career Tech web sites – and now they’re excited that we’re blowing them out of the water.”

–Alicia Mowry, Public Relations Coordinator, Delaware Area Career Center

www.delawareareacc.org