We were having lunch today with Kristen, over at Lemongrass. And she mentioned that she was starting to become interested in the herbs and spices Anne and I (and her sister and mother) use to stay healthy. I think this is pretty cool, because Kristen is young enough and generally healthy enough that it might do her some real good (as opposed to what it does for me, which is to keep me from completely falling apart.

Then later, I was looking at some companies around here (some of which we have done some work for). I noticed that the company formerly known as Perception Kayak is working with an outfit called Verde PR (or something like that). It’s a PR firm out of Colorado that claims to be all about green companies and companies that are into outdoorsy stuff (not sure I see the connection, but I guess it’s a different generation). Anyhow, this gave me an idea.

We eat almost no red meat. And we take hundreds of dollars a month worth of supplements (I mean fists full every single morning). So why shouldn’t companies that are committed to that sort of thing be interested in what we can do. Especially since we have some capabilities and a track record with things like HTML, specialized web tactics, text messaging, loyalty campaigns, insider communications, and stuff like that.

So, with renewed enthusiasm, I am going to start tracking down Earth Fare, Garners, and Greenlife. Or maybe, if they’re as sophisticated as they oughta be, their spiders will find this blog post and come looking for me. In any case, wouldn’t it be cool for folks like us to get to help folks like them? Well, let’s see what happens.

We’ve had this noise around here that sort of resembles the engine room of an oil tanker. It’s this floor-vibrating rumble. Started about two or three months ago, occasionally at first. Then, when we came in this morning, it was constant. For Kristen and Seth, it was like being part of the crew of the Titanic. We decided we needed to do something about it—a prospect that inevitably involves our friend and general contractor, Koko Korver.

Koko came by, poked around the back of our offices, and suggested that it might be upstairs. So we went up to visit our friends at M33 (one of South Carolina’s fastest growing companies according to Elliot Davis). Nobody was there except Nancy Edge, because the air conditioning was out, and since it was about 100 degrees around here today, that could be life threatening. Anyhow, Nancy gave us permission to poke around. And Koko found it!

The little flapper thing was worn in the toilet of the ladies’ room. So the water never stopped running…but it never really started running either. So, the valve had worn out gradually (sort of like what happens when you ride the clutch on a stick shift car). And as the watter ran constantly through this half-open valve, it vibrated the valve. And the valve, through sympathetic vibration, vibrated the plumbing around it, which in turn vibrated all of the plumbing in the building. The whole thing would turn this 100-year-old brick building into a resonator…a speaker housing…a giant, one-note, rumbling pipe organ.

The solution, turn the water off to that toilet. Noise went away. Everyone was happy. Of course, the folks upstairs will have to get a plumber to come and replace the guts of the toilet. But then—sweet silence!

You gotta meet Koko. While he was here, he told us a great story about the early days of his company. Seems that Joel (Koko’s dad and my favorite missionary) had started the company and sold it. They guy who bought it built it up into a thriving general contractor, built entirely on negotiated design-build projects. But then the guy got sick. And the negotiating stopped. And for a while, they had plenty of work, because all the contracts were pretty large and long-term. But, just as the guy was bowing out of the company (leaving it in Koko’s hands), the work dried up.

So Koko, trained to be a missionary not a general contractor, was left with a crew, a contractor’s license, and … no work. So, at the end of every day the crew would say, “what are we gonna do tomorrow?” And Koko would say, “I don’t know; come into the office and we’ll see.” And they would come into the office, have prayer together, do some Bible study and some devotions. And then … the phone would ring! “Hello. Yes. I think we can fit you in. How does … ah … right now sound?” And the crew would head out and do the job, and they would make their expenses.

This went on for months. Then, business picked up. And now the company is a well established general contractor in the area. But before they got to learn about things like cash flow, work flow, inventory, tax strategy, sales pipelines… or anything else, they got to learn about faith.

At about 6:00 this morning, I was dropping my little brother off at GSP, for his return flight to New York. He was here for a lightning fast three-day visit, to talk to somebody (I could tell you who, but, well, I just can’t) about something (I can’t even begin to tell you what).

My little brother, sometimes known among friends as my “egghead” little brother, works for the conference board. You know them as the people who bring us the Index of Leading Economic Indicators (quantifying that the economy is going to heck in a hand basket) and the Consumer Confidence Index (quantifying that although the economy is going to heck in a hand basket, you couldn’t tell it to see people spending like drunken sailors). He is not an economist. Nor is he a PhD. He is a human resource researcher, with a background and education in organizational communication.

It was fun introducing him to the staff. They made the mistake of asking him what he did. His explanation was conceptual poetry of a sort (dude used “causal” and “empirical” in the same sentence). We went over to the Lazy Goat for dinner on Monday—somebody has to explain to American Grocery that if this is going to be a food town, they have to be open on Mondays. We ate a bunch of vaguely middle-eastern tapas things.

Then yesterday, we had a special treat. Our friend Katherine had us over for a basic, simple, home dinner. It was fun watching two of my favorite smart people get to know each other. Each has since expressed delight in having met the other, so as a connector I have had a victory.

Looks like my little brother might be coming back to talk some more with those people about that thing. I hope so. It’ll be fun hanging out some more.

We had a really nice phone interview with a young graphic designer from Wisconsin. Like all young graphic designers from somewhere else, she is looking to move to Greenville, South Carolina for all kinds of reasons having to do with her life. But she will come here and fall in love (with the place), and there is a better than 50/50 chance she’ll still be here 25 years from now. After all, we do have that bridge.

She is pretty good, judging from her work, which is nice to see. But what was really refreshing was that she is a really nice person. Very smart. Loves to learn. And LOVES to do graphic design. I remember those days…waking up in the morning daydreaming about the next big campaign, the shoot, the music, the roar of the grease paint, the smell of the crowd. It’s good to have young, excited people around.

Looks like we’ll be meeting this young woman again soon, this time face-to-face. That will be good. You can learn a lot about someone by what their face says right before their mouth starts talking. I’ll try to keep you posted.

We’ve made an interesting discovery about web perusers. They like to look at people. We consider ourselves pretty ordinary looking people (with one or two exceptions). And we feel like some of our offerings, case studies, and insights are pretty unusual. Yet, the most viewed section of our web site is the people section. I guess we’re just naturally social, and we like to look at each other…just like they said in ad school.

It’s a conversation we sometimes have with technical clients. The temptation is to think that when you do something technical, that you are an exception to the whole people appeal thing. It’s tempting to think that you need to show your technology, to think that technology people are interested in technology and don’t care about looking at people. Well, we have not found that to be the case. In fact, our friends at AMAMCO Tool seem to be having great results with their people-oriented approach. And they’re aerospace…technology…custom tooling…defense contractor types. If anyone is immune to people appeal it ought to be those guys. Not so.

We just launched our new web site. Folks seem to like it. Check it out and see what you think. But that’s not what I’m blogging about today. Today, it’s the value of traffic driving tactics.

For a long time, we’ve been getting about 500 views a week. Since it was the old site, we didn’t really worry too much about it. Then, last week, we sent an HTML email to a few hundred of our friends and relatives as part of our launch plan. We got 5000 views! I’m not a math guy, but I think that’s like a 1000% increase in traffic. If it were an intersection and not a web site, they’d have a traffic cop out there to prevent gridlock! And this week, at the halfway point, we’re already at 800 (60% above our average), which I assume is a halo effect from the launch event. We’ll see how the week shakes out.

The old sales wisdom is, “don’t be afraid to ask for the order.” Well, I guess we have shown that if you want web traffic, ask for it!

Took about as long as it took James Joyce to write Ulysses, but our new site is up. Go check it out. Let me know what you think.

The coolest thing about branding is getting to know people from other places and learning about their cultures. The other day I was on YouTube, watching and listening to IZ videos. If you’re from Hawaii, you know what that means. If not, search YouTube for “IZ,” and treat yourself to some practical Aloha. This gentle giant’s sweetness came out through his voice and his ukulele playng (oo-koo-ley-ley). I get emotional over music sometimes. And there I was with my headphones on, tears welling, listening to this 800 pound man sing “White Sandy Beach,” “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” “What a Wonderful World,” and “Hawaii ’78.” I even liked Pearl Jam’s version of “Hawaii 78.” Something I’m learning is that there is a lot more to Hawaii than meets the eye.

I was just adding the category “Find an agency,” and going through all the posts to see which ones should apply (check it out, there are a lot of them), and I notices that we’re coming up on the first anniversary of this blog. In fact, we hit the one-year mark on May 7. Haven’t blogged as much as I expected to. But looking back, there have been some pretty good thoughts in here, if I do say so myself. 20 days and counting.

Also, it’s starting to be Spring. So things are looking up around here.

We talk about this a lot. The thing is, agencies are willing to go to great lengths to get business from clients that fit. But all too often, a new business pitch becomes a fishing expedition, in which the client doesn’t get the information they really need, yet the agencies take valuable resources away from current clients in order to impress prospective ones. Anne Peck Gibbons shot me an email today with these 21 points for choosing an agency and cultivating the relationship. I thought you might find this helpful.

1. Decide what kind of services you are looking for. (Marketing? Research? Full-service? Media? Branding? Project work? Creative-only?)
2. Conduct an online search with a view to your strategic need.
3. Thoroughly review agency websites. (Review staffing experience, work samples, and client list.)
4. Check to see if they have prior experience in your category, or comparable.
5. Narrow the list to a dozen agencies.
6. Talk to their people. Over the phone, discuss the scope opportunity to see if they’re interested.
7. Ask around. Check out their references.
8. Whom do you feel comfortable with?
9. Find out how busy they are.
10. Narrow your list to five prospects.
11. Visit their location, if possible. If not, ask them to visit your’s.
12. Ask them to show you their best work and their worst work. Discuss why.
13. Ask for a rate card or samples of previous efforts, with costs associated.
14. Meet their top executives.
15. Give them a plan of what you’re thinking. And make sure you are both on the same page.
16. Make sure you have a good idea of the budget and schedule, in hand.
17. National, large clients conduct a pitch to see what the agency offers (either paid or unpaid). Small ones sometimes pay for sample work, or issue an RFP.
18. Choose your agency.
19. Hold them to their deadlines.
20. Love your agency and let them love you, by giving them strategic, rather than executional, direction.
21. Give yourself a 6–month clause, just in case you want out.