Archive for June, 2010

We give our clients
the shirts off our backs!

Monday, June 21st, 2010

Reser Bicycle Outfitters approached us to do a promotional piece for Bike Month 2010 (May).  The two primary goals of this promotional piece were to:

  1. Drive brand recognition and recall
  2. Drive subscription to the Reser Bicycle Outfitters e-mail newsletter

We created a custom t-shirt (front shown here) for RBO to give away throughout the month in store and at Bike Month commuter stations around Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky… then we decided to kick it up a notch.  We wanted an easy to distribute and carry form factor that also reinforced Reser Bicycle Outfitters as THE full service bicycle shop in the area.

Handing people another free t-shirt (despite the fact that it is a really cool free t-shirt) seemed so also-ran and cumbersome…  so, we came up with this awesome compression execution with a bicycle-wheel insert. This form allowed for easier distribution, carrying and reinforced the bike shop’s equity.

All-in-all, it was an awesome project that served its purpose…  on any given day you can see them around town AND the newsletter subscriptions grew by 50% via this initiative.

Do you have something to say?  Let us help you find a creative and high-IMPACT way to do it…  Just reach out to us and we’ll get started on creating some magic for your business!

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Think you’re extreme?

Monday, June 14th, 2010

Reser Bicycle Outfitters frequently sponsors & attends events for promotion and signage at the events is usually poor so RBO asked us to create a banner for them. The particular banner they requested was an awesome, under-table 6′ x 2′ one that could be used to attract high-end riders… and if you’re going to attract folks who enjoy careening down hills, it’s gotta be cool…

This banner was one of a series used at different events targeted at road bikers, mountain bikers and more recreational, family-orient, bikers. They have proven to be effective at drawing attention and further extending the Reser Bicycle Outfitter business name and brand.

Do you have something to say? Let us help you find a creative and high-IMPACT way to do it… Just reach out to us and we’ll get started on creating some magic for your business!

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Don’t know what to ask for?
Ask your vendors!

Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010

It is a common issue.

An organization has a need.  It is a BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal) whose product is obvious but whose pathway is fraught with complex pitfalls and executional details.  To further confound the issue, the organization lacks the specific expertise to generate the RFQ and solicitation of an RFI necessitates significant human resources and implies existing in-house expertise to evaluate, parse and reassemble the data into an effective RFQ…

So, how do you specifically instruct some one on what you want built when you don’t know how to build it or what you should even be considering in the construction?

The US Government came up with a quite elegant answer.  Ask the experts and Web 2.0 it…

For quite a while, the US Government has be leveraging FedBizOps.gov to post government contract opportunities and to procure everything from pretty pictures to F-16 parts.  Even with a great tool like this, the RFI process is still difficult and the RFQ process requires expertise that may not exist internally.  To solve this problem, they piloted http://betterbuy.fas.gsa.gov.  Better Buy is a MediaWiki site where vendors essentially create the RFQ solicitation collaboratively which is then priced by each of the individual participants.

Imagine this post to the Better Buy wiki:

“Create a multi-channel awareness campaign that communicates  Federal Government and BP Oil efforts to resolve the current leak and spill-related damage to the Louisiana shore line within a budget of 2 million dollars, monthly.”

While see issues with this methodology, I think it is a beautiful way to get your vendors to create a best-in-breed solution that they all understand and can bid on with minimal confusion or doubt as to the desired executions and program plans…

Hats off to you, GSA!  This is a very interesting pilot that I hope proves successful and moves into other areas of the GSA acquisition (like the AIMS Schedule 541 work). I think it will both streamline acquisitions and level the playing field for all vendors involved in the pursuit.

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